Singers Of Fire and Ice
by Diluation
Summary: "You're crazy." Weiss Schnee to Barloc. "On the contrary, all warlocks are crazy. I'm just moderately sane." Barloc to Weiss Schnee.
1. Duty Unending

_"Hurry up with the damn swordbearer already Barloc!" One of my titan fireteam members cried out over the comms. "I can't hold the thrall back much longer!"_

 _"On it!" I yelled out, continuing to empty as much of my shotgun as I could into the ascendant knight, all while dodging his relentless cleaver attacks. This went on for a few or so seconds, until finally, the knight disintegrated, leaving only the cleaver on the ground. "I got the sword, pop the blessings bubble for me!" I called out before seeing a titan fly over to one of the rocks near Crota's platform, forming a dome of pure void light to create overshields for me, just as the fireteam member jumped away to group up, the thrall finally managing to get through._

 _I picked up the sword, feeling pure hive magic emanating from it, and flew above the thrall, over onto the rock. "Fire!" I shouted over the comms, hearing the sound of rockets firing from a distance. I then jumped up to Crota's platform, catching his attention and causing him to fire arc bolts at me, forcing me to dodge them. Just as his assault ended, the rockets hit Crota, causing him to kneel, and I rushed forth, slamming the sword a few times before Crota got an orange glow and began getting back up, forcing to rush back to the bubble, waiting for him to become vulnerable. Just as orange glow went away, and the sound of rockets went off, I jumped up to the platform, repeating the process again before the sword then lost it's energy, the form dissipating as Crota got back up._

 _I leapt down to the ground, rushing for the stairs into the crystal room, but a thrall had caught me by the ankles, causing me to fall, and allowing the horde of thrall to pile on top of me. I cried in anguish as the thrall began ripping me apart, claws and maws ripping at my flesh. My teammates were already at my aid, starting to shoot them off of me. A bellowing roar rang out, and the sound of heavy footsteps made themselves known above me._

 _"Shit, retreat! Crota's coming, retreat damn it!" The titan who dropped the bubble ordered everyone to do, and all did, except for the titan who held off the thrall. The titan rushed to my side, arc light covering his entire form as he tried to fist of havoc away the thralls, and I watched in vain as he was cleaved in half by Crota's sword, the arc light being absorbed by it._

 _It didn't take long for the thralls to quickly finish me off, and my vision faded to black from the overwhelming pain, my final death now coming to_ me...

* * *

The sound of a happy toddler behind me had drawn my attention. Or at least I assumed they were, as it was hard to tell in a infinitely dark void. _A kid?_ _When did a kid get in the void?_ I thought to myself. For a while, I remained still, unsure of what to do.

I thought about opening my eyes, and surprisingly, the void was now gone, in it's place a fancy room with an unusually large children's playroom. I could suddenly feel myself again, now realizing that I was on sitting on a wooden floor. A surge of emotion ran through me, confusion, joy, terror, and a sense of being out of place. I immediately looked myself over, finding myself in but a pair of diapers, which only furthered my own confusion.

 _What the hell?_ I thought in a little panic. I then tried to reach for my light, which, fortunately, was still there. It was weak, but it was still enough cause me to breathe a sigh of relief. I then stood up, beginning to take a look around for any sort of exit, quickly spotting the toddler who was dressed like a girl, looked about to be my size, and was 2 years old. It was at this point, the dots had finally connected in my head.

 _I'm a goddamn baby! Why am I a baby?!_ I thought as I went in a almost full blown panic mode, now pacing around the playpen tensely as I explored for ways out, only finding letter blocks and various toys. This continued for what felt like a few minutes or so, before I calmed down. _Okay Barloc, let's think this out. If you're a baby, then that means you've got a family, especially with how this place is. Question of whether or not the family is good remains, but there's more than enough for me to take from here to get back to the Traveler..._

I then felt a flare of pain in my legs, and I decided to sit back down and rest. _Maybe should do that once I develop though. Damn baby body..._ I thought bitterly, now focusing my attention to my would be sibling. The clothing choice made it impossible to tell, as it wasn't pink or blue, so instead of throwing away whatever sense of dignity I had, I simply sat there, watching her as she played around with some toys, entirely indifferent to what she was doing as I patiently waited it out, going over plans as to what to do once I was able to start doing things on my own. That didn't mean I did not walk around whenever I could, knowing that I had to develop muscles for my new body.

Eventually, someone finally came in, and I turned to face them. A butler had just walked in the door, looking down upon us with a smile. "Hey there little snowflakes. How have you two been doing?" He said softly as he walked over.

I debated what to do. _Outright showing my intelligence would probably go really bad. Maybe I could say a word or two, intentionally mess up my sentences... wait did he say snowflakes? Is he our dad or something?_ I looked to the toddler, who held her arms up as if asking for a hug from the butler, and unknowingly giving me the opportunity to see if the man was our father, or a care taker. The man in question had brown hair and a mustache of the same color, along with completely yellow eyes, which made me raise a brow for a mere, unnoticeable second. _Yellow eyes? But he doesn't appear to be any different from either of us, putting aside the obvious._

The man in question then looked at me, and with a smile picked me up with his other arm. I quickly began replicating the same noises the toddler, knowing that I had to endure the dilemma of my situation lest he'd figure something was up. I tuned the man out as I continued mimicking my sister's actions, only desperately wishing for something to stop this from continuing.

Fortunately, the man apparently had duties to take care of, and put us back in the playpen. As he closed the door, I breathed a sigh of relief, both glad for it to be over with, and glad to have taken acting classes from Shiro-4.

Then I felt something down below, more accurately where my... posterior, was, and my eyes shot up in urgency. _Oh goddammit, this of all things?! I genuinely hope that she doesn't have it coming either, or else I'm going to be losing more of my dignity._ Not willing to have my diaper changed by someone else, I quickly began escaping the playpen using the letter blocks from earlier, stacking them in the form of stairs. It took me just a dozen blocks to form makeshift stairs, and I ensured that I'd be able to get back over for when she needed a diaper change, by throwing the exact same amount over the playpen.

Unfortunately, this had caught the attention of my newfound sister, who stared at me curiously as I walked up the makeshift stairs. I stopped at the peak of the stairs, looking back to her, before mounting myself on the playpen and kicking off the top block, preventing her from following me. I then fell safely to the ground, confused babbles coming from her as I looked around the outside of the playpen for anything I could use. Fortunately, there was a trash can, baby wipes, and paper towel that were within reach.

 _This'll do for my little problem._ I thought to myself as I got the paper towel, using it to make a thick layered oval of paper towel, and then proceeding to grab the baby wipes in order to do my business. Once I was finished, I used what I had left to wipe my butt, throwing the dirty wipes on top of the poop, and gathering it all up into a ball. I then walked over to the trash can, throwing it inside with the carefully trained accuracy I had in my time as a guardian. Satisfied at what I done, I looked back to the playpen.

My sister had put the block I kicked back up, and was about to go over the playpen. Instincts as a guardian took over, and I rushed to her side, catching her just as she fell. However, this caused me to collapse, not being fit to keep her held up yet, and forcing me to the ground with her on top. I grunted in pain, waiting for her to get off me. She did just that, exploring the room almost immediately, as if it was a world she'd never seen before. I then attempted to stand up, but only managed to slump against the playpen in exhaustion.

Having nothing else to do but wait for my light to speed up the recovery process, I watched as she walked about, climbing whatever she could find and playing with various items around the room. It was somewhat... cute? I think would be the term to use. However, I knew I couldn't stay here, lest I cast suspicion that I wasn't who I looked like.

So after a quick break, I stood up and started making the opposite side of stairs, but before I could even get a block placed the door had opened, and I instantly began acting dumb. A woman in a elegant dress had entered the room, pausing at the sight of us. From the looks of it, she was our mother, though that was going purely off of looks and recent events. "How did...?" She then looked over to the playpen, finding the stairs that I've built, all the while I acted as if nothing of such had ever happened. She then turned to look at the two of us in confusion, before shrugging, and putting the two of us back inside, thankfully not taking the blocks away and just leaving them a little scattered. However, she then gathered up the blocks outside and put them in a basket that I wouldn't be able to get to. My sister then needed a diaper change, allowing me to turn my thoughts elsewhere.

 _First an inhuman, and now it seems as if I have confirmation that I live with a rich family. Which means they'll be more than prepared to keep me inside when I come of age... I'll need to make a lot of redjacks in order to escape I'm betting._

As soon as she left, I then proceeded to drop my facade, looking at my sister for a few moments in slight annoyance. "We're going to have a fun time aren't we?"

Babbles was her response to my question.

* * *

 **Several years later...**

* * *

I looked around me, making sure nobody was around, before entering a broom closet. I then switched on the audio tape. "Entry number 1, Remnant journal. Ever since my death, and immediate resurrection into the family, I ensured to the best of my ability to slowly, but surely get my intelligence to be known. I couldn't let the family think something was out of place for a kid my age, lest they discover my secret and use it to their advantage. In that time, I had become acquainted with my newfound family."

A moment of pause, as I rummaged through some papers I brought, bringing out one named oddity. "The butler from a year ago was Klein Sieben, and is still serving at what I now knew as the headquarters of the Schnee Dust Company. Klein was an oddity to me, even with the knowledge I quickly gained of Remnant, the planet I was on. The only thing I could make of Klein, is that how he's feeling relates to what color his eyes. Question of whether or not they could become silver eyes is questionable, but I was able to narrow down at least 7 of his emotions right off the bat.

I then proceeded to list of what emotions did what to his eyes.

"It was all I could come up with, as testing would prove to be troublesome, since one cannot so easily force an emotion upon themselves, moreso a mixture. But as any warlock of the tower would do, I hypothesized that a mixture of serenity, disgust, and anger, or perhaps rage instead of anger, would draw out his silver eyes. The only feasible way was to make a joint effort with Weiss to lead him into an accidental murder, or hire a hitman for this exact purpose of making a murdered scene of myself. There were multiple problems with this theory, however." I said with a somewhat frustrated sigh.

I shuffled through some more papers that I'd brought, finding the counter reasons to not test. Inadvertently, I also noticed I made an error in the script, but chose not to say anything about it. "One, is that Weiss would have to know of my secret, or this accidental murder would somehow manage to happen, and preferably in a space where I could secretly snap a picture, as well as be able to distract them so I could quickly toss the corpse away. The alternate outcome is beyond unlikely, so I ruled it out posthaste. Two, is that I may immediately lose Klein's trust after testing, as I had played with his feelings in order to achieve an overall meaningless goal. To him, it would be meaningless, but if one could get the silver eyes to be constantly active on non silver eyes, then he'd be an artificial silver-eyed warrior. Something that was powerful, yet rare within the kingdoms of Remnant."

"Then there's the third problem, which is more of a fear than anything else." I continued on. "A titan or hunter would say that they'd be unable to come back from it without their ghost, thus the third problem as mine didn't come with me, but as a warlock who trained himself in the sunsinger arts, this is ultimately meaningless. However, a dreadful fear stood in place of the meaninglessness, as I had no ghost to resurrect me, so unless I was absolutely certain that I could do it, even though my light is practically the same, I wouldn't touch this theory; unless things were dire for Remnant as a whole."

I then noticed that I missed a detail to add into the entry. "I could try and convince Winter to do it in place of Weiss, but as I had yet to help her through her military training and show my battlefield expertise, this would ultimately fail. There'd also be the question of why a Atlas soldier is sparring with an 10 year old, and why she didn't hold back. Granted, it would be nullified by a resurrection, but the mere fact she could've held back makes it hard to believe that she wasn't trying to kill me for good, not that she'd be able to anyways.

Thus, my theory is unable to be enacted upon, due to my old fear of death returning, as well as a lack of viable candidates." I shuffled some more papers around, listed as enemies and allies.

"I then learned of my father, Jacques. He wasn't a hard man to read, especially once I saw his reaction to how well I've been doing. A megalomaniac who oppresses his wife, and nothing more. Fortunately, all I had to do was do well, which was barely a problem for me. My sister Weiss, however, would struggle to stay up with me, and while Jacques kept his focus on me, he would still occasionally give Weiss unnecessary, and unnecessarily harsh reprimands. This, in turn, caused my natural altruism as a guardian to resolve me on keeping as much heat off her as possible, even being outright defiant towards him in order to keep him away from Weiss."

I frowned a bit. "It has resulted in many... unpleasant experiences. Nothing of hive level for certain, but unpleasant nonetheless. I never got to see our mother after the initial phase of childhood had passed. It didn't take a millisecond for me to figure out what he'd done to her."

I put the paper back, shuffling around for my final script. "But my time in this family was coming to a close, for I would not stand for this. I would not stand as being the driver of the megalomaniac's obsession. I would not stand for Weiss being his next target, and I would not go quietly."

I then pulled the final script out, listed as plans to follow through."During my free time, I had constructed a hidden robotics facility within the confines of Atlas. A facility, that had grown over time with redjacks being in production, and had enough redjacks to guarantee our freedom as well as provide protection for the journey I intended to take. It would be long and grueling, but by the end of it I would be able to construct a counter to this megalomaniac, and disrupt his hold on the economy by the time Weiss is of age to attend a huntsman academy, or simply live her own life.

After that, I would take over his hold on the economy, and fix it up so that everyone benefits, as well as wipe shady practices off the planet. Then, I would wipe the world of grimm, as my final, yet unending duty of a guardian is to destroy the darkness wherever I see it."

I then put all of the papers on the ground, and using my light, ignited them. "But that's the future. Today is the present; and it is the day I've been waiting for. The day where my warlock knowledge gets put to use, as well as the things I've learned from Holiday and the city foundries. All I needed was the one, perfect moment, where I could overwhelm the headquarters with chaos."

And so I went about my day after recording the tape, entirely ignoring the classes I was supposed to attend, and just patiently doing other things for the time I'm supposed to meet up with him, knowing that Weiss would also be there. It was so awfully tempting to just go immediately, but not only I would lose time by searching for Weiss, I would also lose the chance to see his reaction to being so easily taken down a notch.

When the time came, it was almost impossible to avoid letting my arrogant smirk, turn into smile that threatened to split my face in half, as I saw Weiss waiting at Jacques's office, an eyebrow raised at the look on my face.

"You do realize that you're in deep trouble, right Chand?" Weiss asked, clearly bemused. I couldn't help but laugh darkly.

"Correction, Weiss; I'm not in deep trouble. In fact, it's quite the opposite." I said just before we entered the office, Jacques looking positively _**livid**_ as the door opened. I forced myself back into an arrogant smirk in order to push him further. "Jacques."

"Young man." Jacques said through gritted teeth. "Do you have _**any**_ idea how much trouble you're in?!"

How I wished I could tell him. I could go through every detail of my plan, watch his anger turn into shock, get him to place a bounty on my head. But the end of what I had to say would suffice. For I have little time to spare. "What trouble? I've only been playing a game of chess." I said as I turned on the receiver.

"CHESS?! YOU CONSIDER CHESS TO BE MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR-" I then clapped my hands, causing him to pause.

"Check." I said, activating the robots.

Jacques looked confused. "What?"

"Checkmate." I said as I then swept Weiss off her feet, eliciting a yelp of surprise from her as I carried her like she was a damsel. Redjacks then busted through the walls behind him, forcing him to hide on the other side of his desk as I ran past him, jumping out of the hole the redjacks created, Weiss screaming as we began to fall, while I laughed.

"FREEDOM!" I yelled out as we neared the slope. I prepared to time my jump off it, and once I landed, I leapt. My aura and legs broke, causing me to cry out in pain automatically, but it didn't matter. It gave me the momentum to launch out of the city, and into the spot where I've hidden a sparrow. I then activated my glide as I once again neared the earth, yanking on the tether to the Earth, slowing our descent and momentum as I dropped her at a safe height, us rolling over to the sparrow as the rest of the momentum took it's toll. Once I stopped, I turned to look at the city.

From where I was, I could see my redjacks wreaking havoc upon the SDC Headquarters, a satisfied smile at the work I've done. I forced myself up to look at Weiss, pain wracking my entire body as Weiss stood up, trembling with shock instead. She looked to me with tears in her eyes, understandably so any normal person would be wracked with fear and confusion.

"I know you have questions." I said bluntly.

"YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT I DO!" Weiss shouted. "WHAT THE HECK WAS ANY OF THAT?! WHY DID YOU DO ANY OF THAT?!"

"Because I'm not who you think I am." I said as the light quickly began to heal my legs. "Well, technically I am, but this is the side of me you've never seen before, and for good reason. It's a side he would've used to further his own power."

Weiss narrowed her eyes in disbelief.

I sighed. "My name is not Chand. That's the name our mother gave me. It's Barloc; and I'm a guardian of Earth."

* * *

Author's Notes

Hey everyone. First time using this site, came here from another so this might not come out the way I expected.

I don't have any OCs in place for the OC huntsmen team beyond Barloc, so if you feel like joining then all I ask is that you send me some of your works on Discord. My tag is #7293, and the username is Hythunza.

As of now, however, this remains a one-shot idea until I come up with the OCs or get some writers with their own OCs. I have college and other fics I'm writing on, so making some may be a while.

Until then, I will work on the next chapter, and that is where I'll now be looking into OCs for the story. See you all next chapter!


	2. Light to New Revelations

**3 years later...**

* * *

"Sir... are you sure we should be doing this?" A employee asked, using a crane to keep the alpha beowolf down. I looked to him with an annoyed expression on my face.

"Quiet!" I hissed out at the employee. "I need absolute focus to help ensure that the neutrino particles stay in place, instead of dissipating away. This is absolutely crucial if we are to make the craven idea of Grimm trophies a reality."

"I get that sir, but..." A glare promising a pink slip from me had shut the employee up, and I looked back to my work. The Grimm in question was struggling with it's usual, unwavering ferocity, small incisions on a few joints of it's body as the neutrino particles began to escape it's form. I looked at the various materials I had, pieces of my own flesh and bone that were cut off for purposes of testing coming first to mind.

Unlike Grimm, humans simply bled, their flesh left to stay in the mortal fold. So what if one were to say, apply flesh and bone to a Grimm? That was the question that came to me, when I heard of Grimm trophies being a impossibility.

What the people of Remnant don't know, or at least don't take into account, is that the Grimm have a natural death timer when kept in captivity, and is unique to every variant, no one Grimm having a remotely similar death timer. This still meant experimentation or transportation was in the realm of possibility, just that it needed to be drastically sped up or recapture them after a certain amount of time had passed. At least, it was how my theory goes.

Thus, I decided to experiment like I normally do, though with only one alpha beowolf as a test subject, in order to gauge the time it takes for a beowolf to die of natural causes, as well as hopefully make some progress. In the experiment, I would use my own skin, as well as gravity dust to entrap the neutrino particles. This would hopefully cause the skin to turn black, but still keep it in place.

Dust was, surprisingly, incredibly similar to light. So similar, that if it weren't for the fact it can't regenerate, I would've thought the Traveler was here. Under the influence of light, the effects of dust would be both drastically more powerful and effective, with lower usage of dust, and on top of it, can regenerate with light should it be able to extend with it. Such methods would include the devour trick of Voidwalkers, the Dawnblades of Fire, and so many that one could go on for days explaining each and every one of them. This lead me to try and create replicas of each and every unique subclass, but so far attempts have been nothing but failure on everything except mechs.

Putting the Grimm experiment to the test, I put some skin onto the incisions, the reason behind it being Grimm parasitism. A not so well known practice, there have been individuals who have Grimm parts on them for unknown reasons and ways in Remnant. I took it upon myself to capture them, and once I found out their intentions, would force them to join us, or use them as test subjects when they wouldn't, or even couldn't confess as to how they got a Grimm part. It was something none of my employees liked, and even questioned the ethics behind it, but I had long since ensured them that it was for the mission I have for humanity as a whole, despite how morbid it was at times.

So, if one were to try and force a Grimm to parasitizing into a dead, or living host? Surely this would force them to stay alive longer, maybe even permanently bind them to Remnant?

The skin, unfortunately, did little to prevent the particles from escaping, the particles instead lifting the skin. I grabbed some gravity dust, and took the skin off, putting some of the dust inside of the incision, before putting the skin back on. I then focused my light, having it pass through the skin without damaging it, and activating the dust in hopes of causing the skin and neutrino particles to mold. It did it's job well.

Too well, however, as the skin was practically absorbed by the Grimm's body, doing nothing to heal the incision. I quickly jolted down the results on some notes, as well as putting in the next theory to use on the notes. I was about to start again, when I heard an all too familiar voice.

"I thought you said you'd already read up on all the laws?"

I turned to face her a surprised, yet stern look on my face, and even though I couldn't see it, I could tell my workers were holding back the grins on their faces. "The ways I help humanity isn't of any concern to you, Weiss. And shouldn't you be doing the homework I assigned you? I need you educated about the world since we lack any sort of academy."

"Homework's done, and I'm bored." Weiss said as she walked over to inspect the alpha. "Plus you haven't gotten around to trying to capture anyone with an eye semblance in like, what, 14 days? That's not like you."

I flushed a bit in embarrassment, but otherwise kept the look on my face. "It's not my fault I get no willing, and viable test subjects nowadays!"

Weiss narrowed a disbelieving look at me as we stared at each other in total silence.

"Okay, MAYBE that last one was my fault, but I thought extreme bodily distress would cause her eyes to turn silver!"

She sighed. "You know, despite all that you've done for me, sometimes you come off as one crazy, perverted child."

That got me flustered. "I am no child!" I said offended with arms crossed. "I am a warlock!"

Weiss paused for a moment. Then gave a somewhat infuriating smirk. "And what's a warlock?"

"Why, only the best of field scientists!" I said with no pride not being made distinct, as I hit my chest with telekinetic force, a loud clapping noise emanating as a result. "Truly, Remnant has been blessed with the best kind of guardian!"

"You're crazy."

"On the contrary, all warlocks are crazy. I'm just moderately sane."

"So you admit you're crazy?" She said with a little, somewhat infuriating giggle.

I opened my mouth to respond, but stopped as I realized something. I spun around to look at the test subject, who, unfortunately, had already dissipated into the air. "CURSES!" I shouted to the air in frustration, followed by the crew laughing their asses off. Fortunately for them, I payed them no heed, and immediately went to write down how long it took, as well as the condition of the body.

Weiss merely rolled her eyes, grabbing me by the wrist as I was about to write down the type of Grimm experimented on.

"What the?!" Was all I managed as she began dragging me out of the room. "LET GO OF ME YOU INFURIATING ICE CREAM!" I yelled at Weiss as I tried to struggle free.

"Infuriating ice- PFFFT" Weiss then proceeded to giggle for a minute as she dragged me off, spouting empty threats and calling for my workers to get her off of me all the while, to which none come to my aid. After two minutes of this, I ceased, a disgruntled expression on my face as she took me to the entrance of the facility.

"Now, you're going to go out, and do something OTHER than work. Like talking to people."

"Talking is irrelevant to saving humanity!" I said in protest.

She simply closed the door on me, and I overheard Weiss telling the receptionist to not let me in. I sighed in defeat, knowing that I can't take away her power as Co-CEO, as public trust in me is practically nothing when it comes to asking for subjects to experiment on.

In other words, if it wasn't for her being the CEO, my workers would've fled before my company got to this point.

I then proceeded to grab my hidden bag of field tools, and got into my jumpship. Having nothing else to do for the time being, I decided to walk around Vale.

Vale, unlike Atlas and Vacuo, didn't seem to care in the slightest about my image, or the bounty placed on my head by Jacques. In fact, the kingdom itself often acted like they didn't know of me. I knew this because usually huntsmen, and sometimes teams of them, would often try to capture me and bring me back to Atlas. Of course, they all fell under my vastly superior technology and innate combat experience as a guardian, but it did leave me feeling bored as I walked about Vale, and slightly frustrated.

The frustration mainly stemmed from hearing no beeps from my AEL, short for Anomalous Energy Locator. An invention I made, and grew to adore having as I walked Remnant. It could detect anomalies in a 10 mile radius... if it were working properly. Having enough of hearing no beeps, I stopped to open my bag, finding that all my field equipment was missing! Instead, there was a note inside of the bag, along with the emergency weapons I carried with me.

"'I said to socialize, not take your experiments elsewhere. -Weiss'" I crumpled the note. "Sometimes I wished I could've not brought you along..." I muttered to myself. I then threw the crumpled up note behind me, it disintegrating as I walked away.

I didn't pay much attention after that, just idly wasting time until I knew I could go back inside the facility. Eventually, I stumbled into an alleyway that would've prevented most from going anywhere, only a metal fence blocking my path to the other side, which led to another street in Vale. I was about to jump over it, when a arrogant voice caught my attention.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" The voice said as I turned around. wore a red-lined white suit with long black pants and black shoes. His accessories included a small gray scarf, black gloves with buckled sleeves, and a black bowler hat with a small feather tucked into its red band. A gang of men was behind him, and at that point I instantly knew he was a mafioso. He had a grin on his face. "One of the runaways of the noble family? Kids like you shouldn't be on this part of town."

 _Ah, yet another arrogant crime gang after me. I suppose this would serve as a nice change in pace..._ "Then you should know," I said as I pulled out my two out of the three self-made replica weapons, a Remnant version of Valedictorian 9-44 from the bag, complete with already loaded tracking rockets loaded with portions of my solar light, and Shadow Price, a gun I received from Toland the Shattered. Valedictorian-44 unfolded from a small cube into it's original design, and I put Shadow Price in a pocket as it did so. "I'm no ordinary kid."

The mafioso's grin faltered for a moment, before going back up. "I doubt you are... get him boys." The mafioso said, as he then pointed his cane at me. As soon as his lackeys began moving, I conjured a solar grenade and threw it, creating a dome of fire that stood between me and his men. I then boosted off the ground in a glide, landing directly on top of the fence as the dome dissipated. Taking the offensive, I glided up into the air again, firing a rocket shot directly in front of his men, causing dozens of them to fly back with their auras broken. Another rocket had cut his numbers down to few, which charged over to catch me. Taking them by surprise, I activated what I had left of my glide, casually floating over them as I swapped out Valedictorian for Shadow Price, which unfolded within seconds, mowing down their auras with ease and leaving the remaining few injured and on the ground.

I reloaded Shadow Price as I turned to face the mafioso, who looked to be in utter shock and fear. Just as I was about to pull the trigger, I heard the sound of glass breaking, and felt someone land on my back. Before I could react, a chloroform rag was held up to my face, and I accidentally breathed it in. Much to the person's misfortune, however, the rag couldn't effect me, as the light made me immune to but the most powerful of poisons, and I dropped another solar grenade, forcing the attacker off me. I then jumped behind the mafioso, releasing a powerful wave of flame from my palm and sending him flying back into the fence.

Once the dome of fire dissipated, I was able to get a good look at who helped the man. She had hair reminiscent of neapolitan ice cream, and her eyes were white with fear. Her attire consisted of a sleeveless black blouse with white frills on the chest and collar, and a black ribbon bow hanging from the front of the collar. The blouse exposed her midriff, and she worn medium-length black armbands on both of her wrists. Along with the blouse, she wears a knee-length skirt fastened with a white belt. She wore black shoes with a triple tomoe emblem on the soles, with white legwarmers.

Once I was done looking her over, I let out a chuckle of amusement. "You know, I'm impressed. Most would run away after seeing an entire crime gang get ripped to shreds by me. Friend of yours perhaps?"

I waited expectantly for the neapolitan girl to talk, only for the mafioso to talk. "She's mute."

"Ah," I said in understanding. "She know sign language perhaps?"

The neapolitan girl's eyes then changed color, catching my interest. I then proceeded to make several mental notes, and theories of what I could do to activate silver eyes on her. She then proceeded to do sign language. _"I can actually. And he's a friend of mine... long time friend."_ She then paused for a bit. _"Why do you care? Shouldn't you be turning us in or killing us?"_

"As much as I felt compelled to do so for you two trying to impede humanity's progress, there are now a few reasons why I shouldn't." I said as I grabbed my bag. "One, your eyes changed color. This alone means that I will have to capture you for experimentation."

At this, the man in the coat sent a furious glare at me. "You dare think about touching-" As I was putting in Shadow Price, I suddenly aimed it at him, causing him to shut up.

"Two, I happened to be locked out of my own facility by my sister. To get some friends she says." I then scoffed indignantly. "Humanity is in danger, and she wants me to talk to people?! There's hardly any time to talk!"

At this, the man gave me a bemused look. "Ok... but what does this have to do with us?"

I leveled a glare at him as the neapolitan girl facepalmed. "Do I need to spell it out for you? I'm asking you two to help me break back in! I have experiments to complete!"

The neapolitan girl raised her hand, catching my attention. _"Will you leave us alone if we help you?"_

I shook my head. "Not unless you continue to help me. You see, I'm the owner of a soon to be extremely powerful company that's aiming to take over the SDC. However, my influence is small for the time being." I then called in my jumpship, and a few seconds after I did, it landed on the ground behind me. "Come in. The police should be coming here soon, and I can't explain any further if you two are arrested."

The two nodded, getting into my ship with me. I then flew the ship up into the air, and saw a crow watching me from one of the rooftops. Ignoring it, I then flew out of the city.

* * *

 **2 minutes later...**

* * *

The three of us then landed in a small clearing outside of the facility, not close enough to be spotted, but enough for the facility to be visible.

The man in the coat and the neapolitan girl, looked around in confusion for a moment, before quickly looking at their scrolls, and their eyes widened in surprise. "Did we just cross 793 miles in 2 minutes?!"

"Quite so," I stated as a matter of fact. "And you can cross more in that time should you do as I ask."

That definitely caught the full attention of the two, both looking as if they're on every word I will say.

"As I stated earlier, I have been locked out of my own facility by my sister. As I am no man of stealth arts and can only hack the systems, there's no feasible way to just walk back into my own facility. That's where you two come in." I then turned my attention away from them, turning to my own scroll and sending them a detailed map of where everything is on their scrolls. "Use this map to navigate the facility. Should you come into any automated defenses, rest assured that I will take them down before they do any bodily harm."

I then turned my attention back to them, and they then looked up from their scrolls to hear what else I had to say. "Do this job well, and I will offer you a place in the world I will usher. A golden age of technological advancements, and a world purged of Grimm. All I'd ever ask after this, is your help to take down the SDC."

The neapolitan girl looked absolutely excited by the prospect, while the man in the coat looked skeptical. "Why the SDC though? Whatever have they done?"

"There's a megalomaniac at the wheel of the once proud SCD." I said distastefully. "Megalomaniacs have no place in a world of rapid advancement, especially dumb ones who are too absorbed in their power fantasies." I then crossed my arms. "So, you have any more questions? Or shall we start the mission?"

The neapolitan girl raised her hand. _"One, you aren't going to experiment on me after this? And two, PLEASE tell me you're an super friendly alien in disguise, because you're really coming off as one!"_

I chuckled. "From another dimension filled with technological wonders actually. It's a long story though." I then gave a somewhat bitter look. "And no, it's company rule to not let me experiment on those who are in the company, and without consent. Courtesy of my sister, and I can't overrule her authority on it... as much as I'd like to. Your eyes appear to go with your emotions. Such things can potentially be manipulated to make silver eyes, especially using certain chemicals... but it doesn't matter right now." I then threw them a couple of radio transceivers.

"Use these to help me keep track of your progress." I said as I turned on my own. "Oh, and I'll need your names for the record. Can't go around calling you something you aren't."

The neapolitan girl was first to respond. _"Neopolitan. We won't let you down sir!"_ She signed with a salute.

"While I do not share the same enthusiasm as her," The mafioso said. "I do recognize an opportunity when it's thrown at my face, and I don't plan on leaving her. I'm in, but a question of my own before I go?"

I raised an eyebrow, waiting to hear him out.

"This doesn't restrict me to ONLY robbing the SDC right? And what of the job offer afterwards?"

"As I said earlier, you're free to do whatever you want, as long as you continue to answer to me. By the time I'm finished, you will be offered to take the role of head of security." I said without pause. "However, should I find you do things that impede the progression to the golden age of technology, I'm afraid I'll have to stop you from doing anything of the sort, and may have to take the future job offer away depending on how severe it was."

"Now, get moving." I said, shooing them away, as I accessed the automated defense system. "I have experiments and theories to be done. Particularly the Grimm trophy experiment, and project Valkyrie."

They did exactly that, making their way into the building with haste. They talked very little throughout the whole ordeal, no doubt wanting to leave an impression on me. With the automated defenses down, it took little time to unlock the facility's doors. It was to be expected, of course, as the automated defenses were the backbone of security. No mere mortal could hope to figure out the unending confusion, and the nearly impossible to destroy blockades after all. Especially exos, despite how useless that is now.

That wasn't to say the normal security within wasn't in the slightest hard. The pathways of workers and guards were intentionally made to be convoluted, and would need a well-trained thief of the city to effectively traverse without being spotted. Which meant they earned their place, as I would expect.

I was about congratulate them, when I noticed some of my elite soldiers behind them, following Weiss who had a smile on her almost insufferable face. "Looks like I still win." She said, catching their attention as she looked to me.

"What do you mean you've won?" I said with a raised brow as I walked past. "I simply hired thieves to open the door for me. Now leave me to my experiments."

"And the thieves sir?" One of the elite asked, no doubt pointing a gun at them.

"To be under company protection, should I decide otherwise." I said without pause. "Drill them up on the things not to do around here. I shall be busy working on projects for the remainder of the day. Also, bring me Grimm subjects! Grimm trophies is too big of a profit margin to ignore, and we need it to overwhelm the economic control the SDC has."

"There'll be no need for any of those." I heard Weiss say, causing me to stop.

"Except for Grimm subjects!" I yelled over my shoulder. "Should you not do any of drilling them up, do something that'll cause this company to skyrocket!"

With that said, I made my way to the experiment room with haste, deciding to work on project Sunsword, a physical replica of the Dawnblades of old.

* * *

*Third Person*

Roman Torchwick fidgeted nervously. The scathing, and frankly smothering heat he felt from Barloc was nothing compared to Weiss's cold, hard stare that seemed to be looking into his very soul. He looked his side, finding Neo not there, and looked around for her. Weiss seemingly noticed as well, and both saw that Neo was already checking out the various things of the, now the he learned the name of, Farlander.

Weiss chuckled. "While I appreciate your curiosity," She said, catching the attention of Neo. "I would suggest not touching anything yet. My brother gets awfully crazy when something blows up, and it's not his doing."

Neo nodded, and walked back to Weiss. _"So, what things can we touch that don't blow up then?"_ She signed with a grin, the words apparently not getting to Weiss.

"She's asking what we can, and can't touch." Roman translated for her.

"That's why I sent them away. I'll be guiding you two around." Weiss said, as she walked deeper into the facility. "And.. thanks. Barloc generally just shuts himself inside the lab room 90% of the time, and it's kinda not fun having to drag him out of it every day. So do me a favor and do your best to keep dragging him out too, ok?"

"Will do miss." Roman said with a nod. "Now, let's get going with this tour."

* * *

 ***Author's Notes***

Hey guys! Sorry it took a while to update, family was getting in the way, and college is jumping up.

You may not see me update a lot, but I guarantee you, I'm devoting whatever free time I have to the fics I have. Unfortunately, this means I must throw out gaming and binge watching anime. Which kinda sucks, but I liked this fic, and a couple other fics as well(and I'm also in collabs, can't leave people hanging.).

I have OC character ideas set in the event nobody reading this wants to join the team. On top of that, I've decided what the team name will be. It's called BASK, and while the OC ideas are there, ASK are still open slots in their own right. I'm giving next month(or maybe half that), to allow people to join up.


	3. Hurricane of Change

**Author's Note**

Wait wut? Is the story over already? Why am I already seeing the Author's note?

You're not bud. :P I'm now deciding to instead use the AN for replying to guests and such, as well as immediately tell you of things related to the story(seeing as the site has no blog post for this).

OCs shall no longer be accepted in the next chapter, so if any of you have came up with an OC, or want to write an OC yourself in this, then by all means do it. Also, for that one guest saying that the timeskips were getting annoying, the timeskips end next chapter as well. I did the timeskips to go past largely unimportant stuff to the story, as the things I would've written could've just been daily things in the characters' lives. It would've also dragged the story out a lot, and I wouldn't want to finally arrive in Beacon by chapter 38743.

To Dave; who said I should just have the redjacks fight for him:Yeah, that's a pretty crazy idea indeed. So crazy, it's not going to be done.

To TheRealCactoos:I'd post a pic of how insane I am currently being at this, but unfortunately Fanfiction doesn't seem to allow it.

That said, please leave OCs in Discord, my tag to message within chp1/PM it to me. Reviews is not a place for putting in characters.

To everyone else:I'm glad you all are enjoying the story. College life isn't slowing me down to that point yet(even though I hadn't posted for months), but I have at least a semester before I get 2 more classes added, and chapters may not be coming until the years pass. Especially as I'm juggling this and the stories I have on the other site.

But don't trouble yourselves with how my life is going. Enjoy the story! Grab some popcorn or something while you're reading.

* * *

 **2 years later...**

I opened the doors to the security training room. It's a room very similar in design to the Vytal Festival's size and plain biome setting, the difference being that within the walls various mechanical replicas of enemies that I have faced. When a enemy race has been selected, hundreds of the chosen enemy race will come out of the walls and attack, at which the user shall defend his or her being, until the arena AI has deemed the user unable to continue. Those wanting to have higher authority within the ranks of my security come here for practice, and newbies an orientation through trial.

Fresh security personnel will, initially, only have access to the everyday grimm. Then, they will have access to the enemies I had, starting from Fallen, Hive, Cabal, and finally Vex, all to be fought in order. Of course, they were merely replications, and data on all archetypes are incomplete, but I thought better to make sure all personnel have experience with these in case any of them show up. Particularly, the Hive and Vex.

I was here to refresh myself on my old enemies, as well as refresh myself with certain weapons, after having spent too much time experimenting. A guardian isn't a guardian without being above mortals in normal combat, as Lord Shaxx would say.

I walked to the control panel, being positioned in the center of the room, beginning to add the modifiable variables into it. As I did, a voice I didn't expect to hear made itself known.

"Up this late again, aren't you?" Weiss said.

I turned to look at her, and was about to respond, until I noticed her expression, causing me to think it over. I then narrowed my eyes. "I didn't expect you to follow me across time and space."

As I had expected, she transformed into something I was far more familiar with. The Ahamkara set I had locked away.

'Weiss' chuckled, still mimicking her voice perfectly, as it neared me. "You know reality doesn't stop me, O bearer mine. Even in my worst state, I will always be able to move about freely."

"Well, if you think that now you can manipulate me," I turned back to the panel. "I now have several data points to-"

"I know what you want." It said, causing me to pause. I looked up from the panel, finding it there. "You want to be a benevolent god to these people. You want to protect them from their inevitable doom, but you're not real enough to do it. I can make that wish come true, O bearer mine. All I ask is that you let me eat the finest flesh, and you will be considered as such."

"I do not need your help to fulfill my purpose!" I yelled in protest at the apparition. "Find someone else! I have no time for your petty games."

"...You want me to find someone else?" It asked almost mockingly, before laughing. "You are alone in this universe, O bearer mine. No one more real than you. You have no one to turn to but yourself... and me."

"That's not-" The apparition then outstretched it's arm to an unnatural length, putting a finger on my lips.

"How about a little reminder of your old friends?" It said, before it started turning into my fireteam members. By then, I closed my eyes, trying to shut it out.

"Cayde said that following a warlock like you would only lead to ruin... I see what he meant by that."

"To think, that I had even a sliver of hope of getting vengeance... my faith was misplaced."

 _...Shut up._ I grit my teeth, pressing my hands to my ears.

"You said that we could do it. That any fireteam with knowledge of the place could do it with ease... such of the delusions of a warlock."

My breathing began to quicken.

"When you first recruited me, you said it's better to stay a team... what's the hunter motto I should've listened to again?"

 _Shut up._

"And to have finally been bested in the crucible... only for my newfound rival to lose to a group of thrall? Lord Shaxx must be ashamed of me. Lord Shaxx must be ashamed of you."

By this point, I began breathing heavily. "I made the wrong choice."

"SHUT UP!" I shouted as my eyes flew open, slicing at the noise with Ilias MK1, only to have turned bug-eyed.

Ceres laid on the floor, a massive cut in her shell. Shakily, I kneeled before her, picking up her fragmented form. They felt real. So unbelievably real...

Then, she dissipated into a mist. "You will dine with me on the finest flesh." The voice of the being echoed. "You will become a god."

The doors then opened, and the being disappeared from my sight, leaving one message to echo in my head. **"And you will do it soon...** "

"Hey boss! Got a couple of folks you might wanna-"

I turned to look at the intruders, who had all but frozen up at my gaze. Two of my employees, one female, one male, stood at the doorway, unsure of what to say or do, as a couple of papers were held in their hands. Slowly, I approached them, the two looking increasingly anxious as I approached. I stopped a few feet in front of them. "You have subjects for experimentation?" I said with a cold feel to my voice.

They dropped their papers and ran.

Thoughtlessly, I picked up the papers, reading the contents within. As I read on, a smile grew on my face. A fox fauna that is most definitely alien, with infinite ammo, and an eye semblance. A servant of a goddess that may have a connection to The Traveler. A mutated dragon fauna that has all the traits of dragon faunas, calls themselves an Argonian, a race that breathes underwater, and is an experienced warrior.

 _Yes..._ I thought to myself, running over every possibility that experimenting on them would bring. _This is much needed. For me, and everyone else. I get a bunch of experiments, Remnant gets boosted even further, and I get that much closer to full political and economical control over the world. Hell, this may even bring it to me immediately! I just need to get them here..._

With that thought in mind, I rushed out, heading straight for the mecha building center, and ordering my workers to customize two mechas for pacifying my newfound targets. Much to my misfortune, I didn't yet have enough materials to fill them up with tranquilizers and chemicals, so I ordered some from local companies. I also sent Weiss away to Vale, turning her own obsession with trying to get me friends against her to station her there for a few days.

Having nothing else to do; I waited. I put everything not important aside all just for this one moment, and gave a psychotic grin as I saw the ammunition come in, and the factory workers fidgeted nervously, not that it mattered. Sure enough, the ammo was quickly loaded into the mechas, and The Imp flew into the air through an opening of the factory, already heading off to it's destination. My jumpship then came in, and it's systems then transmatted the other mecha, Jupiter's Havoc, which towered in size compared to the other mechas, mainly to absorb as much damage as possible for when it landed.

I then jumped onto the ship, opening up the window and entering the pilot's seat. I quickly started up the engines, and flew to the village, reaching it as fast as I did the time I brought the two little thieves to my factory. I almost was about to drop the mecha down, when I had noticed that there were no anomalies nearby, save for three strange energy sources emanating from the forest nearby. I turned the ship around, and noticed a nevermore flying about the forest, clearly attacking something.

Grin back on my face, I flew above the bird, quickly analyzing it's movement patterns. After some time flew by of me analyzing it, I dropped the mecha far above the stratosphere, and entered it as it was falling. A moment later, it crushed the nevermore, dropping me in front of my targets.

I released a crazed laugh. "THERE YOU ARRRRRREE!" I bellowed, as I pointed to their stunned forms. "YOU THREE ARE COMING WITH ME FOR EXPERIMENTATION! COME QUIETLY, AND I WILL SPARE AS MUCH PAIN AS POSSIBLE DURING TESTING!"

"HELL NO!" The argonian said said taking flight.

The fox just summons her rock cannon at me, eye already alfame. "Yeah, like I'd let it happen an eighteenth time…" She says, bemoaning a bit.

A man that was standing beside them said nothing as he faded away, a small blue light trailing behind him.

The priestess merely readied her brush, eyes narrowed and in focus.

"Then I guess it's time for some FIELD EXPERIMENTS!" I yelled out with a laugh, changing one of the hands into a assault rifle visibly loaded with needles. I take aim at the fox, firing at her almost immediately after it transformed.

"Nope, nope, nope, sooo much nope!" The black haired teen squeals as she pulls her cannon over to shield herself from the pointy barrage coming her way.

"NOT COOL!" The argonian said, as she dove to hide herself behind the cannon. "NOT COOL AT ALL!"

With a small grunt after the fox kept shielding herself from the needles.

"All my more powerful shouts have too much splash damage." the argonian whined, and I couldn't help but smirk at both her misfortune, and the implications. _Shouts huh? OH you will be SO MUCH FUN!_

The priestess was deftly dodging the needles, her brush swatting aside any that got too close to her.

Packages began appearing along the left joint of the mechs leg as the chaos had ensued. The mech looked down a mere second, noticing the first package. Not deterred by it, the mech advanced upon the cannon, still firing at whatever targets it could. As it came upon it, it kicked the cannon away whilst changing it's ammo, and made move to grab the argonian and the fox.

Thinking quickly the argonian shouted. "FEIM!" and turn ethereal in a split second moving out of the way. The gun fired it's needles upon her, only to phase through her body, causing the pilot of the mech to become more excited.

The fox was more or less not as lucky or as clever in the moment, as she just tried to smash the outstretched hand while turning her cannon into Lance mode, only getting grabbed as a result of her efforts. The gun then turned into a hand, as the one holding the fox had some holes open up on it, machine arms holding needles coming out. I then activated protocols to initiate the first experiment for silver eyes.

The priestess turned her brush to minigun form, opening up on the mech. The mech, unfortunately, wasn't so easily deterred by just this, as a needle pierced her skin, letting chemicals flow into her body. The blue flame on the fox's eye cut out, tears began streaming down her face as the girl went limp in the machine's grasp. A massive explosion caused the mecha to stumble, releasing the fox from it's grasp as a result, causing her to fall hard on the ground.

With a rebel yell, the man had reappeared, and jumped to face their attacker, pounding on the cockpit frame with a super heated pneumatic gauntlet. "So much as lay a finger on her again and I will vivisect you!"

"Not only that, I will melt your manhood off!" The argonian added with a fierce roar.

I quickly looked to the fox. "Note to self:Use lower doses to trigger expected reactions on this one…" I muttered. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, I charged up a pulse wave of arc energy.

Finding no real progress in mindlessly slamming a metal fist against the beast, the man kicked off the chassis while leaving behind a primed Tesla Grenade. I growled in frustration, and turned it's hand into it's assault rifle form to focus on the priestess, firing while moving closer to her, making it look like it was going to focus on her next.

The priestess backed up, switching to uzis and strafing as she shot me.

"We need a plan. I have a spell that could do the trick, but for a few seconds before the cast it leaves me wide open, so cover me!" the argonian yelled out as she starts to focus. Energy readings then seemed to spike around her.

The man began ramming several needles and inhaling various substances, as he faced me once again and roared in it's face. I merely raised a brow at him.

I continued to move to the priestess. Then, I suddenly leapt back in a backflip, being directly behind the argonian. I shot a small burst of needles towards the argonian, only to realize it phased through her again! I grunted in anger, waiting for the opportune moment to strike as I kept the rest off of her.

"Someone cover me, I need ten seconds!" the argonian called for help.

Hearing that, attacks resumed on me, and I returned fire whilst waiting for the argonian to be vulnerable.

The argonian eventually reach a critical point, summoning meteorites towards me. I grinned maniacally, and made to grab her, ignoring the meteorites

The priestess hopped over to the argonian, picking her up and moving her to a more easily defensible position, barely evading a grab from the mecha. It then tried to make chase towards the two, but found several canisters of high grade explosives striking it's back and remaining leg joint. the man reloading a grenade rifle with several green canisters made his way to the beast

Seeing defeat in sight, I initiated ejection, launching myself high into the air and leaving the mech's AI to deal with the three. It turned it's gun to fire upon the man, but it was too late. It's exposed and sparking openings gave the enraged man enough leeway to decimate it with plasmic canisters, short circuiting it.

As the mecha exploded, I boarded the imp, and quickly flew back down, taking the attention of the group once more. "Lets see how you deal with this!" I giggled. It transformed it's arms, one of them into a sniper rifle, another into a tendril.

"Alright so you want to play dirty? Time for my trump card. MUL QUA DIVV!" The argonian shouted, her body getting covered in spectral, dragon like scales.

I released another manic giggle. "Such a interesting specimen! You'll be the taking part of many experiments!" I then shot the whip towards the argonian in a attempt to grab her.

Then, with a thundering bang, three large and blue projectiles roar towards the tendril, cutting it off. The tendril regrew from the arm, and the mech flew higher into the air. "You're playing…" the fox says, her voice very unsteady. "With fire here…" She says, tears still streaming but her flame reignited. And seeming more wild and intense as it flickered in a slightly darkened shade of blue.

Taking the hint, the man had whipped put his own ace in the hole in the form of a long green rocket launcher adorned with a large white star surrounded by smaller blue stars. With a wild roar, a stream of rockets began to screech from The Red Glare. It dashed off to the side, avoiding the red orbs and fired a high speed needle into the man, the chemicals weakening his resolve. It then rushed forth for another grab.

Taking that as a cue, the argonian took a deep breathe and shouts. "FUS ROH DAH!" from the other side, causing me to spin out of control, yet maintaining my altitude, and letting the group cause great damage to my exposed state of momentum, and leaving my shields in near decimation.

The priestess simply switched to her minigun, keeping pressure on the mecha by firing streams of bullets towards me.

The fox held back, causing great damage to it's shields with her cannon while gritting her teeth. She only had to stop when her cannon overheat, forcing her to initiate it's cooling mechanism, letting out large puffs of steam and smoke at the back through a metal jaw that opened to reveal some piping.

"LET IT HAVE IT!" the argonian roars as she once more casts the bomberment spell. Seeing the nature of the attack, I stood still, absorbing it's barrage for a while with a grin on my face. Just as I was about to taunt the argonian, I noticed my solar energy absorbents were about to be overloaded, and I dodged out of the way, systems getting heavy damage from the overload.

I retreated, letting my shields regenerate, and be empowered by the excess energy, drastically boosting my shields.

"Well fire is out, so lets try this!" the argonian starts to fire off ice spike spells one after another, only scratching the shield's defenses whenever they hit.

Switching to smaller arms, the man began firing railway nail shaped bolts from a rifle that resembled an old fashioned train car, which dealt decent amounts of damage to the shield when a shot landed.

At this point, I had enough of this bystander. I slammed the controls inside my mech. "You're getting in the way of PROGRESS!" I yelled out to the man, focus firing him down. Giving no rebuttal, the man simply took to dodging the oncoming fire like a wild beast while also returning the fire in kind.

The mecha flew about just as erratically, making it difficult to hit it despite it's large size. This continued between the group and the pilot for a little while, until the man was eventually overwhelmed by the needles, unable to continue fighting due to exhaustion.

The pilot, now done with the man, then flew far back, far out of range for the remaining members of the group. It then activated it's thrusters, charging at the group at a terrifying speed, arm stretched out to grab.

Through numb and unresponsive muscles, the man grit his teeth in desperation as he clawed his way along the ground in a vain attempt to reach any of his allies.

Unable to do anything in time, I successfully grabbed the argonian, and I smiled. Just as I was about to fly off and capture them all another time, a large ball of contained gravity dust had hit me from behind, causing severe damage to my shields. I then grit my teeth, turning around not only to escape, but to spot the culprit just before I flew off.

 _Oh for the love of The Traveler!_ I thought whilst grinding my teeth, spotting Weiss, who looked none too happy about my newest test subject. I immediately activated thrusters, attempting to escape, but it was fruitless, as out of nowhere, another man had appeared out of thin air, shooting forth and cutting off the arm holding the argonian, inconsequentially destroying the systems.

My eyes widened in fear, and was shocked for a second before I fiercely struggled to escape the falling mecha. Unfortunately, it was all for nothing, and the last thing I heard was a loud crash, before the familiar feeling of my life being extinguished washed over me. I was then treated to a familiar sight. Not familiar in terms of landscape, but familiar in terms of color. I could see everything around me, in the familiar heat vision of death. This only meant one thing to me.

I could resurrect. And that my mission wasn't over.

In the heat vision, I saw everyone except Weiss, who wasn't around for some reason, moving towards the mecha for signs of life. Not wanting to waste time, my spiritual light form flew over to the ruined mecha, knowing that I couldn't be noticed.

I resurrected within the destroyed remains of the mecha, smoke concealing my resurrection as I walked out. "I have to thank you four~!" The voice from within the mecha said, without any sort of interference from the mecha's speakers.

"BY THE HIST, HE'S STILL UP AFTER ALL THAT?!" The argonian shouted out in exasperation.

The man could only growl lightly in frustration, both tired and angry at himself for allowing an opponent to harm his newfound friends.

I walked out of the wreckage doing a little dance as if unscathed, flaming wings at my side to let me float in the air. "I've been wanting to test if I could resurrect for a while, but haven't worked up the courage! Now I have more theories I can test! OOOHHH, I can just FEEL the things I want to do myself now!"

Two separate assault rifles then materialized in my arms. "BUT I'M STILL TAKING YOU IN FOR TESTING!"

And, as if on cue, I felt Weiss's karate chop the back of my head, causing me to fall into unconsciousness.

* * *

I sighed in annoyance, looking down upon the prone form of my brother. _'Make friends' he said. 'Hypocritical of me to be doing this otherwise.' he said. While he had a point; I knew he'd do something like this in due time..._ Him subdued, I searched his pockets whilst making small talk, and pulled out the controller for the ship, bringing it down to me. Shortly after began talking to themselves, and I patiently waited while I thought what I should do to get Barloc back for this. Various ideas sprung up, like trashing his lab, something he never likes to see, or having him walk all the way back to the factory again. Of course, as CEO of the company, and being a guardian, a lot of this wouldn't serve to deter him. Another option sprung up, involving...

I flushed and shook my head. _Ok, EW. So much EW. Don't even know where that came from, and now I've mentally scarred myself._ I then made a mental note to start putting up more strict measures towards obscene pictures of him as a girl or otherwise, figuring they were more the cause than anything else. It was getting tiresome, spotting those in the factory once every month or so and taking them down, anyways.

A moment flew by, and eventually his ship finally arrived. I began to pick up Barloc, and get ready to get onto the ship.

"Schnee huh?" A drunken voice said, causing me to look over my shoulder as I lifted Barloc.

I turned to look over my left shoulder as I laid him on my other, glowering at him. "If you're thinking about getting us for the bounty; you'd best find your money elsewhere."

"I don't care for the bounty." The drunk with the sword-scythe said, walking over to me. He then held out an envelope. "But my boss has been trying to get in contact with you two for a while, and decided to take a direct approach this time."

I took it with my other arm, putting it in the pocket. "We'll take a look at it when we're back at the factory." I said sharply, before launching up with a couple of glyphs, setting Barloc in the passenger's seat as I set the ship's coordinates to home. Once they were set, I took out the envelope to see who the sender was, out of curiosity.

For a moment, I was shocked to see that the very headmaster of Beacon had invited us to his school for huntsmen. But then my eyes fell upon Barloc; and I recalled him saying he was going to send me off to that academy, then follow shortly after my graduation. I couldn't help but grin at that point. _While I don't know your plans for the future, I think this will be a nice form of comeback. After all, you said there's nothing that could threaten us anyways..._


	4. A Traveler's Beacon

Sage:Don't worry, the story won't be focused on those characters. In fact, it is mainly just a minor crossover between another story being written by other people. I happened to like it so far, and as I was writing out chp3 my thoughts turned to it. So then I thought. _Wait, Barloc would go ape-shit if they found out about them. That'd make things a little spicy!_

So yeah, while those characters are there, they don't appear all that much in the story. Little cameos of the characters here and there, maybe a interlude or two, but it doesn't affect the overall plot of the story that much(But do expect one interlude).

OnePunchPlayer:Weiss has lived with a guardian that's obsessed with work and technology. As guardians fight pretty much 24/7, you would imagine Weiss has picked up a few things with her living with Barloc(and a few upgrades too).

* * *

"I cannot BELIEVE you did this to me Weiss!" I said with gritted teeth, as we flew to Beacon in a airship. "Do you have any idea how much this hampers my ability to swiftly destroy the SDC?"

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Oh please, you yourself said the technology you brought would've gave the company enough leeway to take out the SDC on their own." She chided. "And its been, what, 4 years ever since you quickly started introducing it to Remnant, along with several other unique inventions you made? That's gotta be enough to give us enough ground for us both to get through Beacon, and still have taken down the SDC."

"Well your calculations-"

"And what did I say about using words like those? Nobody says calculations in a normal conversation, Barloc."

I opened my mouth to protest.

"Or data points. Or the scientific names of anything, especially referring to salt as sodium chloride. Or using grimm-"

"Who are made out of-"

"GRIMM to try and make a portal back to your home, in any place where there is an abundance of them." She corrected, as well as continuing. "The whole facility was covered in black goo. No one wants to clean up a mess like that again."

"This is all just review for me Weiss!" I said with my arms folded. "And I am certainly capable of basic socializing skills!"

"If your insults, and the fact the entire facility doesn't really know you the way I do means that you're social; then the White Fang must be social butterflies." She said dryly. "Seriously, I have no doubt that unless you get some friends, the first person to try and date you would get severe injuries."

I sighed in defeat, deciding to let the subject change. "Speaking of injury, somebody has been attacking my workers. You wouldn't happen to have any clue of that wouldn't you?"

"Someone has been making... degrading, pictures of you to say the least. Probably somebody is treating you like some child who's innocence must be protected."

"I make all these inventions for war, and someone would think I'm a child?" I said disbelievingly. "That person must be a fool!"

"You can say that again..." Weiss said with an almost unnoticeable smirk.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Birds and bees."

"Don't birds eat the bees?"

She sighed, and slapped me on the back. "Never change, Barloc. Never change."

Confused, and no longer feeling like continuing the conversation, I decided to walk around the airship, leaving Weiss alone for the time being. I also decided to use the time to make an audio log.

"Entry log number 257. I'm heading to Beacon early, thanks to Weiss who decided to bring me with her against my consent. The airship is nothing impressive to me, nothing notable to really describe. It was your average everyday civilian transport ship in Remnant, with little bits of technology from the SDC, my corporation, and... a courier industries? I'll have to look into it when I have time."

I then cleared my throat. "As of now, I'm wandering about the ship. What I'm mainly looking for was three things:Eye semblances, unusual traits, and most importantly, silver eyes. Silver eyes are among the rarest of eye colors in Remnant, and are rumored to hold incredible power. Those with the trait are usually sent into the life of a huntsman or huntress, meaning that there'd usually be high chances of them dying due to obviously inferior weaponry they didn't get their hands on. Silver eyes are a top priority for me, and for obvious reasons too."

I looked about, before tuning down to a whisper.

"Well, except one. I've theorized that if I got hit by the power, it would overcharge my light, allowing for temporary, but continuous usage of my light. The theory itself however, would actually mean some slight danger to me, because if I used my solar light and got hit by that, I could accidentally prove another theory right. One that would spell catastrophic disasters for Remnant.

I looked about once more.

"What is known to only the sunsingers, out of fear that we would be rejected for being a natural danger to the city, is that our light is uncontrollable when we first learn how to use Radiance, making our boundless light, well, a little too boundless. To put it simply:The song of the sun comes through us unfiltered for when we first unlock it, effectively killing everything in a several mile wide radius, and temporarily polluting with the plasmic stains of the warlock's light, making it look like a battle has taken place. This generally never happens again for a sunsinger, meaning the terrifying power that is unleashed never returns, and the sunsinger can only push themselves to half it's potential. With Remnant's mysterious silver eyes, and the evidence of dust containing very small specks of light, however, I fear as if one blast from a silver-eyed huntsman, accidental or not, could cause me to go a second song. One that would cause me to relapse, and go far beyond a normal sunsinger. While it could potentially mean it would turn me into a god, the ecological consequences would be severe here, especially without the Traveler's protection."

"But!" I said in a normal tone, as a couple of students nearby begin to talk loud enough to be picked up on the audio transceiver. "There is absolutely no need to worry. Even if I'm becoming a huntsman, the chance of encountering a silver-eyed, even if I really hope to meet one, is infinitesimal. Why, the very thought of encountering one here and now makes me laugh!" I then proceeded to make a fake, intentional laugh, catching me a few stares that I didn't mind.

"Anyways, I hope whoever is rudely listening to a private log keeps it in mind to never say anything about it. If word gets out, I may find myself-"

"The robbery was lead by a nefarious criminal named Roman Torchwick, who-" I stopped listening beyond that, going back to the log.

"I'll have to cut this short." I said as I turned off the audio log. "Curse this racket! Can I do anything remotely productive on this ship without distractions?!"

As I said that, I noticed a cat fauna with a bow hiding her ears seemed to be staring at me as she sat on a chair, a little bug-eyed and in recognition. Upon my gaze meeting hers, she quickly returned to her book, pretending as if I didn't notice her. Having nothing better to do, I walked up to her to figure out why she was looking at me like that.

"You seemed to recognize me." I said as I sat next to her, causing her to jump. "Is it too much of a problem to ask how you learned of me?"

She paused for but a few seconds. "I heard of you from some friends of mine."

A lie. An obvious lie, with the way she's been acting. "They wouldn't happen to have fangs, would they?" I said, whilst staring her straight in her amber eyes.

She looked to me, clearly alarmed. "H-how did you-"

"I saw your ears from the side." I cut in. "And I've developed quite a reputation with the recently violent White Fang for being a pacifist. Not to mention the fact that liars generally pause when looking for a way out, as well as avoiding eye contact."

The cat fauna sighed. "Well, you got me. And I don't suppose I need to ask if you'll turn me in?"

"You don't. Don't cross me as that sort of person anyways."

"Thanks." She said, before turning back to her book, a silence falling between us.

"So..." I started off, mentally scratching my head to figure out what to say next. "What brings you to Beacon?"

"I'm trying to leave my old life behind." She said in response. "They're not like how they once were, back when I was a kid."

"I can feel with you on that." I said in response. "My old life quickly had turned out to have bad leadership in a matter of moments, where it used to be good."

She raised an eyebrow at me.

"Lets just say we both have secrets we wanna keep here." I said to her. "I'll tell you when I feel like it is the right time to."

"Fair enough." She said, returning to her book.

As the PA system of the ship announced that we were descending, I realized I hadn't caught her name. "What's your name by the way?"

"Blake. Has always been." She said, eyes not leaving her book. "You have an old name you prefer to go by?"

"Barloc." I said as I stood up, getting ready to leave. "It's been pleasant chatting with you Blake, but I'm afraid it is time to get ready for school. I'll see you around." I then proceeded to exit the ship passing by a blonde boy who was vomiting in the trash.

* * *

Beacon looked to be one that many civilians, and guardians alike in the city fantasized of making one day, when the Darkness no longer hovered over our heads threateningly. The tower in the center, along with the many cone roofs on the other structures looked majestic, dare I say even rivaled the beauty that was the Tower's interior for when I had first arrived. Of course, it had nothing on the faraway view of the last city as a whole, but still notable enough to stare at for a few moments.

Having enough of the view, I then proceeded to get a move on, spotting a girl in a red dress and a blonde girl with long hair. The red girl appeared to be openly fawning over the weapons that came by her, while the blonde look on, as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Eventually, she tried to go after a person, only to have been pulled back.

Shrugging, I walked past them, ignoring the two entirely until I heard the red one say something that caught my attention. "Just weapons? They're an extension of ourselves!"

I stopped and smiled for a moment. _A true connoisseur of weaponry! Very few realize that, even back home..._ I then proceeded to get a move on, only to have seen the blonde chick speed past me with a group of other people, causing me to stop again.

"Wait! Where are we going?" The red one called out from behind me, and I looked back to see that she was left spinning. "Are we supposed to go to our dorms? Where are our dorms? ...Do we even have dorms?" As she said all this, I noticed she was about to fall right into Weiss's luggage. Reacting quickly, I drew Ilias, and sword-dashed to her side with a burst of speed, stopping her from falling and eliciting a yelp of surprise from her.

"Try to regain your footing instead of yapping your mouth off." I chastised the girl, getting her back on her feet, and out of Weiss's way, who looked nonplussed. She blushed, looking at the ground.

"Sorry about that... do you happen to know where I'm supposed to go right now?" She said nervously, seemingly sorry for having almost made a mess.

I thought about how to respond to it, in order to lift her spirit.

"Why should you even ask that? Even we new students know where the dorms are!" I said dramatically, causing her to shrink a bit, as I intended to happen. "That being said; I have no idea where the dorms are either."

This caused her to giggle a bit. "We're both dorks then."

"Indeed." I said in response. The boy who was vomiting earlier then walked up to us.

"Hey, so... what's going on here?"

We looked at him for a moment, before she broke the silence with a snicker. "Aren't you the guy that threw up on the ship?"

* * *

We then had walked for a bit, the boy defending his previous actions as she talked to him. All the while, I lead the group inside the building in search of where to go next. Initially, I found the conversation to be amusing.

"Look, all I'm saying is that motion sickness is a much more common problem than people think!

But after a bit, it was a little annoying.

"Look, I'm sorry, vomit boy was just the first thing that came to mind."

"Oh yeah? What if I called you crater face for almost falling into the luggage?"

Traveler they are insulting each other now.

Preventing the situation from escalating any further, I butted in the conversation. "Look, we all have our own mistakes you two. But frankly, the conversation is getting to be childish, and we haven't even introduced ourselves. So how about we get to it?"

That seemed to have stopped the tension from growing, as the blonde boy introduced himself first. "The name's Jaune Arc! Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it!"

The ensuing silence showed our doubts towards that.

"At least, I hope they will. I mean, my mom always says that... nevermind."

 _A run away from a pleasant life in rural areas perhaps? Would certainly explain his clumsiness..._ I thought silently to myself.

"My name's Ruby Rose!" She greeted enthusiastically. "I'm training to be a huntress so I can help others! I mean, the police are alright, but huntresses and huntsmen are just so much more romantic and exciting."

I stared at her with a look of bemusement for a moment. _Innocence... that will not serve her well here. And here I thought she thought more like a guar-_ I then realized, after all this time had passed, the color of her eyes.

Those were silver eyes.

At that point, I stopped thinking or speaking entirely, turning around to face her, and not realizing I was about to be rammed by one of Weiss's bellboys, who were carrying her luggage. I fell into the luggage, not even being bothered by it, and just stared at the ceiling. The two helped me up, but I didn't mind, only one thing echoing in my mind.

 _Silver eyes..._ A phrase I repeated to myself over and over in my head. After a few or so second passed, I sword dashed away, mindful of the crowd, to the nearest bathroom. Once inside, I pulled out an audio log, not even bothering to do my usual introduction to label it.

"SILVER EYES!" I yelled out excitedly. "THERE IS A SILVER-EYED GIRL IN THIS VERY ACADEMY! If I can get her to-" I then went off, listing every single theory I had with silver eyes at a rapid-fire pace, as well as the possible info I can obtain to get said eye colors on everybody. This went on for a lengthy two minutes, before somebody knocked on the bathroom stall.

"Excuse me, but if you can get done in there, I'd very much like to use the bathroom." A quiet voice said.

I then cleared my throat. "...Right, I went off a tangent there. Audio log number 258." I said as I turned off the log, exiting the stall. A short, tousled red orange hair boy with hazel eyes was before me, along with a tan complexion. He wore a light brown shirt with a tattered orange corduroy jacket, jeans with narrow triangles of leaf-patterned orange fabric sewn into it, making them slightly bellbottom. He also wore a Phantom of the Opera-style white mask that covers the left side of his face.

"Thanks." He said, going inside after me. I then exited the bathroom, stilling feeling ecstatic at my recent discovery.

 _If this is what I get to see for attending Beacon, what other incredible findings may I find?!_

With that thought in mind, and a stronger resolve to stay in Beacon, I immediately began wandering once more, now actually paying attention to the surrounding students.

* * *

Much to my misfortune though, I had found no students with an eye semblance, and time flew by fast with the lack of something to be interested in. It seemed as if Ruby Rose was the only one of interest. Well, beyond the boy that is. It seems as if he traded an easy, restraining life for an inexplicably hard one. It is very respectable, but such a fiery will is untrained. Dull.

I would have to hope he lands on my team, or he finds someone of school level training. Someone who sacrificed something like that would be no mere joke if they went that far for an even worse life.

So, after a sigh of defeat, I moved to where all the first year students gathered for the orientation. At the very least, I knew where that was.

I moved to a random open spot in the crowd, uncaring of whether or not it gave me a clear view. Sure enough, the headmaster of Beacon had moved up to the podium after some time. He cleared his throat, and gave his speech, of which I completely ignored. It would be out of place for a headmaster of such a academy to give the wrong kind of speech, of course, and I already knew what he would be saying. Not in the exact words, of course, but I had imagined it would be similar to the initiation speech for us guardians back home.

 _Hmmm... I wonder what Ikora would say, attending a vastly inferior school equipped with knowledge I already have surpassed?_ I idly thought to myself, as the man got off the podium. A woman then got on, stating that we would gather in the ballroom for _tonight_ to get ready for the initiation.

Just as I was going to leave, I heard her speak. "Also, Chand, the headmaster wishes to speak to you in his office. Everyone else is dismissed."

That caused me to outright stop, turning around and looking at her questioningly. She merely motioned me to follow, and I did so, the students whispering things about me as I walked past them. I paid it no heed, following the woman.

As I did so, I took in her features. She appeared to be a middle-aged woman that has very light-blonde hair tied back in a bun with a curl hanging down the right side of her face. Her eyes were bright green, and she wore thin ovular glasses. She also had dangling teal earrings that match the hanging pendant on her collar.

She wore a white long-sleeved, pleated top that has a wide keyhole neckline, and gauntlet cuffs that flare in pleats at the wrist. Her lower body was covered by a black high-waisted pencil skirt with bronze buttons and black-brown stockings.

She also wore black boots with bronze heels, and a cape that is purple inside and black on the outside. The cut of the cape is stylized to end in flames and arrows, with a row of diamond-shaped bronze beads on the back. Above this line of beads appears an emblem of a tiara, which I figured it may be a personal symbol of sorts.

Her weapon of choice, a riding crop, also seemed to stay at her right boot.

"As Ozpin suspected." The woman commented, and looked at me in hidden surprise. "You seem to be analyzing me, not even nervous in the slightest..."

I raised a brow. "This Ozpin, has he heard of me before?"

"Not to my knowledge, no." She says, shaking her head. "But the man sees something in you that I don't. And is probably why he sent Qrow to go find you and Weiss."

 _So that's how Weiss got us both here._ I thought to myself, as we continued walking.

We eventually reached the clocktower within Beacon Academy, and walked into an elevator leading into the top floor. The elevator doors opened to reveal the top of the clocktower, with the gears being visible in the rooftop. Ozpin sat at a desk a fair distance away from the elevator, which was also made out of gears, and was staring at me with a look I only saw in other guardians.

 _But that isn't possible..._ I thought to myself suspiciously, as I walked up to Ozpin's desk, a chair placed for me to sit in.

"Have a seat." Ozpin motioned to the chair, the woman leaving me as I did so.

Dismissing the look as a fluke, I did so before speaking. "Is there a reason you called me forth so early, headmaster? I don't recall doing anything wrong here at Beacon."

"You have not." Ozpin assured. "Though I would've thought you'd understand the reason you're here, especially with your sister willingly bringing you in with her using Qrow's invite."

"I suppose he's the man that cut off the arm of my mech?" I said with a bit of distaste. "What does he have to do with me being here?"

Ozpin sipped his coffee. "You understand that the things you've been doing have caused a lot of people to take interest in you, correct?"

"As it should." I stated with a proud smile on my face. "Remnant needed change. Change for the better. I only sought to provide the means to change." I then frowned, narrowing my eyes a bit at him. "But what does it have to do with all of this?"

"Perhaps you should've slowed down a bit on development then." The man said as he took another sip. "Because to me, it is quite frank that you lived far beyond a normal human being."

For a moment, I paused to understand what he was going for, before raising an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"During the development of your company, one constant mystery was the source of the energy that was present in many of your combat products." The man said, before taking another sip, leaning in a bit. "Some have taken to scouring the world for it. Others, as you have undoubtedly noticed, have taken to digging into your company to find the source."

"They would try." I stated with my arms folded. "But the energy is a company secret."

"It would seem to be." He stated, before looking at me straight in the eyes. "Have you read of The Four Maidens?"

"An interesting story, and would explain many oddities throughout Remnant. But there's no sign of them."

Ozpin was silent for a moment. "Then perhaps this will build some trust between us." He said as he stood up. "I would recommend you come with me."

"And if I don't?"

"I wouldn't think it wise to have your source revealed so earlier; Barloc." Ozpin said nonchalantly. "Especially since you aren't more than the world economy combined."

I stared bug-eyed for a moment. "But how?"

"You'll understand if you come." He said, walking towards the elevator.

Having been placed in such a position, I did nothing but follow. We then went down to the lower levels, below the ground, and revealing a mostly dark and empty hallway, darkness preventing me from seeing the end of it. The both of us walked down it without a word being spoken. Out of curiosity, I pulled out my anomaly scanner, and found that it's charge was dead.

We eventually reached the end of the hallway, finding a girl in a cyropod. She looked to have suffered a vicious attack, and I made to raise the question of why she hasn't been taken to a hospital, but Ozpin beat me to it.

"We do not know much about the maiden powers; but one thing is for certain:The last girl the maiden has thought of, is the one the maiden's powers go to next, otherwise it is random."

"That would most certainly explain it then..." I said in acknowledgement.

"But the power of this one has been drained somehow. Stolen."

"While it is not out of the question, I have known enemies that can steal one's... aura." I stopped myself from saying light. "The process is undoubtedly unpleasant. I would not be surprised if someone spliced with grimm is the cause of this."

"Then your guess is as good as mine, as to who the culprit is then." Ozpin stated with a sip of his coffee.

"I'll make sure to keep an eye out for it, then." I said, sending a quick text towards security personnel to have it so all grimm personnel go a by monthly scan for unusual energies. "I gather it'd be impossible to reinforce security without too much attention being drawn forth?"

Ozpin nodded.

I then proceeded to walk away, only stopping once to turn and look at Ozpin. "A few more things:Is there anyone else I should be aware of knowing about this? And is there anything else I should be aware about of the maidens?"

"Just all the headmasters, and a few friends of mine you've already met." Ozpin said, before walking past me. "The rest I'll reveal when I know I can trust you. This has gone on for longer than you've been here, after all." With that said, he disappeared into the darkness of the hallway.

I turned to look at the maiden, who laid still in the cryopod. _I shall return to analyze your energy later. For now, I hold good faith that you are but another sign of the Traveler._ I thought to myself, before getting out of the place and heading up into the ballroom.


	5. Prelude to a Fire Storm

***Author's Notes***

I AM ALIVE!

Maybe not immortalized, but am still alive!

Other than that, nothing of note to talk about, other than finals coming up before a short break into the next. I do aim to do an Easter special when it rolls around, as a winter special simply doesn't work atm with the time constraints. So keep reading on!

Now without further ado, lets do this!

* * *

As the sun shone it's radiance on the world of Remnant once more, I took the time to do another audio log on the rooftops of Beacon, which was empty around me.

"Entry number 259. The rest of the day was almost as eventful as the meeting of Ruby Rose. While I cannot go into detail, as it would most likely cause worldwide chaos, I will say some legends still hold truth. You might be wondering what it was like the night before the initiation test."

I sighed. "Well, it was most likely a mess. I say most likely, as those two girls wouldn't stop pestering people."

* * *

After I had exited the clock tower, I made way to the ballroom, having nothing else to do but settle down and make some progress on my self-made book that I planned to release to the public soon. It was a book with well designed art, something almost all of us guardians have taken to doing as a past time. It was carefully made book, not to let anyone know about my powers, but enough to share my own story, and not give the readers a clue about who really is the main character about. As it was a biography from another realm, it would undoubtedly help speed up my plans towards the SDC.

The book would cover everything I knew about my universe, but important points that not many heard of spun in a way to let the readers feel like how I felt about learning it all. The mysterious disappearance of the legendary Iron Lords, with Lord Saladin the only one left to be seen. The apocrypha of the Hive and their cursed way of life. The tragic tale of the Fallen told by Variks. Though, as the last tale was mostly talk and the Iron Lords still mostly a mystery as to what killed them off, I had to spin it into a tale of action, and introduce a fallen captain that would become a major character.

I had purposely left out the Vex. I wouldn't give even a mention of them out of fear that they might invade, and that is something Remnant could never prepare for.

As I did this, I once again overheard commotion. But in that commotion, was a familiar voice, and I looked over to see what it was.

"Shut up! I didn't get to take my friends to school, its weird not knowing anyone here." Ruby Rose said, pouting.

A blonde girl with long hair and lilac eyes removed the pillow on her face. "What about Jaune? He's... nice." She smiled. "There you go! Plus one friend! That's a 100% increase!"

Ruby sighed. "Pretty sure Barloc and his sister counts as two negative friends. Down past zero."

"Oh come on; someone just up and running away doesn't mean they're scared of you! You just made one friend and one enemy!" The girl said, before getting hit with the pillow again. She once more removed the pillow, as Ruby turned to face the ceiling. "Look; its only been one day. Trust me, you've got friends all around you! You just haven't met them yet."

As a moment of silence flew by, the yellow one noticed I was staring at them. I quickly returned to my book, continuing to write and draw art in it, hoping to just continue my work without further interruption. While I did want to talk with Ruby; I also didn't want to do anything to accidentally activate silver eyes. They were an anomaly, and potentially anomalies were to be studied first, not approached.

The girl looked back at Ruby. "Who's that guy that was looking at us?"

I could tell Ruby went to look at me. "That's Barloc. I don't think its a good idea to approach him now; though. He seems like he doesn't wanna talk."

 _Yes! Do not talk to me! I wish to ensure that I don't make the mistake rookie warlocks do!_

Much to my misfortune though, the girl was having none of it. "Oh come on, it doesn't hurt to ask why he!" She said, as she pulled her out of bed.

I grit my teeth. _No! Go away you damn titan! Leave me to my work!_

Ruby was, unfortunately, unable to escape her grasp, and the two approached me. "Hello~!" The girl said with a smile, and let go of Ruby, who turned away. "I believe you two may know each other?"

"She's Ruby Rose." I said, while maintaining focus on my book, trying my best to look uninterested. "Prevented her from falling into my sister's luggage, which was filled with volatile dust. Bit of a klutz."

"Yeah I'm a bit of a..." Ruby stopped herself. "Nevermind."

The two fell into very short whispering session, before the girl spoke up. "My name's Yang, Ruby's sister."

I allowed myself a glance, noting the differences between them. I didn't speak a word.

"So, uh, were you planning on doing some late night training with somebody, or do you just sleep in your armor?" She said, taking note of the armor I've constantly worn after establishing my presence in Remnant. "Looks really cool by the way!"

I remained silent, and kept my focus on the book.

"Yeah he's a lost cause..." The girl said, walking back to her bed.

As I was about to internally celebrate, Ruby got curious of what I was doing. "What are you writing about?"

I restrained a sigh of defeat. It seemed as if these two would never leave until the night flew by. "A work of fiction. I do writing as a hobby."

"What's it about? Does it have a name?" She said, getting down next to me.

"It's called Destiny. A story of a guardian who sought to push back the darkness, but died trying." I said, closing the book and handing it to her. "You can pre-read it if you want." _Please do._

"You mind if I could read it too?" I heard Blake say, and we turned to face her. "It sounds interesting."

I noticed that Weiss was getting annoyed with Ruby, and decided to cut things short. "That's sound like a great idea." I said, handing Ruby the book. "You two just ensure you bring it back to me before the initiation. It is still a work in progress, and I seek for it to be published when finished."

She took the book, and walked over to Blake. The two then began to read it, and I took the chance to go to the rooftops, getting in my jumpship and flying back the factory to do some experiments, as to distract myself from coming up with plans to kidnap, and experiment on Ruby Rose.

* * *

"The exact details of what happened on that night is unnecessary, anyways. However, I do have a feeling Weiss may have went and got vented her frustrations on Ruby and Blake. She doesn't like faunas, especially since most of the time the White Fang would mutilate me, and I often came home as if nothing was wrong." I sighed. "Poor girl must have a hatred of faunas. My shortsightedness had left a glaring mistake upon her. A mistake I hope the academy may be able to correct."

"But!" I said with a smile. "The cat fauna was a good thinker, using a black bow to hide her ears. There's a good chance that Weiss may not have realized she's a fauna. I just hope she never finds out Blake's dark secret. There'd most certainly be some trouble then."

A moment of pause, as I struggled to voice my thoughts about home. "I still wonder how The Last City is doing. The leaders may be fools, but I care for the Traveler just as much as Ikora does. I shudder to think about the scenario of Crota finally invading Earth, and..." I shook my head. "Right; off topic. Signing off." I then deactivated the audio log.

"Well, if world shaking info doesn't get anybody curious," A feminine voice said, causing me to turn around and face her. She was blond-haired with emerald colored eyes, and light colored skin. Clothing looked to be mostly white with black accents on the edges, complete with a cape. The cape heavily reminded me of those damned hunters, who are so talkative and annoying... "Then I'd be a total weirdo for asking."

"That you are." I said, not letting a beat pass. "And I'm afraid you won't get answers."

She shrugged. "Hey, can't blame me for trying, right?" She then jumped off the roof, landing perfectly and walking up to me, holding her hand out. "Name's Sterling. Sterling Eeli."

I grabbed her hand and shook it. "Chand; but I prefer the name Barloc." I then crossed my arms. "So why were you eavesdropping?"

"More like overheard." Sterling said. "You stopped before I could get your attention."

I raised a brow at her.

She held her hands up. "Honest! Anyways; the two girls from last night wanted me to hand you this book." She said, pulling out my book from behind her cape and handing it to me. "Pretty good read so far by the way. Loved the part with the protagonist hunting down that spider captain."

I nodded. "And there's more to come. I plan for all four volumes to be released at the same time. That is volume 1."

She smiled. "Well then, you got 3 fans of your work. Make some copies for us to read?"

"If you three get through the initiation." I said as I stored it in my bag. I then walked past her, heading down to the locker room. "I don't have the time to make copies at the moment."

She looked at her scroll. "Oh shoot, you're right! The others must be up right now!" She said, rushing back inside.

Having always carried everything in a bag in Remnant, I simply leapt off the building, using my glide to prevent fall damage. There wasn't any need to break my legs this time around after all.

Once I landed, my scroll buzzed, and I looked to see who it was. It was my 'Sundae Thieves' for lack of better names to use, or care about. They'd finally gotten together the info needed for the initiation. Unsorted, and not generalized as I simply request data on the past few decades or so of previous initiation, but it was something I would quickly get done myself, as I walked to the initiation. Apparently Beacon hasn't done a catapult drop in for over 20 years in the initiations, and all the initiation data, composing of team duels, battle royals, and grimm extermination, have all recently been used compared to the older method of object recovery, which was 3 years behind the team duels.

I smiled to myself. _So unless he wants to make things overly predictable for particularly observant students, this shall be the initiation... I'll be in and out in no time. Just yank on the gravity tether to slow my vertical momentum just enough, potentially faceplant into a tree, not that it matters too much, find Ruby Rose so I can study her at a closer, safer distance, and then take whoever else I want before leaving the initiation._ I chuckled to myself, putting my scroll away as I arrived at the cliffside near Emerald Forest. _Oh Ozpin, you should've tried far harder to force me into putting actual effort into this school of yours_ _. The invention of giving everyone silver eyes shall be mine without anything in my way!_

And, as if I spoke of the Darkness itself, I saw Ozpin standing at the cliffside, looking at me with a raised brow, and with, presumably, another cup of coffee in his right hand. He, and the blonde woman who's name I haven't gotten, were standing near the launch pads. "You're early."

I kept my smile up. "But of course. You aren't dealing with some mere boy after all." I said as I got on the launch pad.

This piqued the woman's interest. "I know you're the owner of Adastra Industries, but you're not even going to talk to anybody?"

"My sister can handle herself, and I have no need to socialize to others." I said as a matter of fact. "I'd rather do my own thing and not be bothered. That's always the way I've been."

Ozpin took a sip of his coffee, staring me in the eyes. "So in other words, you'd prefer to blend in."

"Essentially," I said without hesitation. "It would cause me to be distracted, after all. I must continue giving as many projects, and smart business choices as possible to ensure my company grows as strong as I intend it to be."

Ozpin nodded. "Well, if you feel as if it suits you. But for future reference, you should talk to your teammates during your time at Beacon. We wouldn't want any issues to arise with them after all."

"I will keep my eye on them, I assure you." I said with a flick of a hand, showing my concern for it. The blonde woman looked as if she wanted to say something, but Ozpin stopped her, and we sat in silence as we waited for the rest to arrive.

Sure enough, students came from behind us in groups, all getting onto their launch pads. I spotted Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long in the midst of the crowd, as well as Weiss, who seemed to be talking a red-haired woman with green eyes. After a bit of walking, Ruby eventually noticed me. For some reason I wasn't sure of at the time, I decided to not immediately move my gaze away from her.

She walked up to me, smiling. "Hey Barloc!"

"Good morning Ruby Rose." I said in response. "Sterling had given the book back to me."

Her eyes widened a bit, a hopeful look in her eyes. "Will you keep your promise on getting copies for us to read?"

 _A promise? ...Ah, she must've gotten word from Sterling._ "Of course I will." I said with a nod. "You brought the book back after all."

She smiled at me. A smile that made me feel... awkward? Happy? I wasn't sure what I was feeling. I'd have to analyze what part of my brain was being stimulated from these kind of interactions.

Needless to say, she got on her launch pad after that without another word, Yang Xiao Long following suit. As the crowd dispersed, I couldn't help but notice that Blake was missing. As the school was accepting of faunas, I couldn't help but wonder what happened to her. She seemed to be a nice person, in spite of her past.

As the students finally gathered on the launch pads, Ozpin spoke. "For years, you have trained to become warriors. And today, your abilities shall be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

"Now, I'm sure many of you heard about the rumor regarding the assignment of teams." The blonde woman with Ozpin said, while looking at Ruby. "Well, allow me to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... today."

I didn't move a muscle, simply staring back at them.

"These teammates will be here for the rest of your time at Beacon." Ozpin spoke. "So it is in your best interests to get paired with someone you can work well with."

From down the row, I heard Ruby make a scared noise. Considering silver eyes were rumored to be for the fighting types, I decided it would be safe to stay there, figuring that getting her scared wouldn't activate silver eyes.

And, as if to rub salt in her metaphorical wound, Ozpin added. "That being said, the next person you make eye contact with will be your partner for the next 4 years."

I yawned, as Ruby shouted a cry of fear and confusion. "WHAT?!"

"After you've partnered up," Ozpin spoke, as if she hadn't said anything. "Make your way to the northern end of the forest."

At this point, I completely tuned out on Ozpin, and looked at my scroll out of boredom, searching up articles about the latest uses of dust. I only caught wind of something about an abandoned temple, before out of the blue, I got launched, the scroll slipping out of my hand as I was sent flying.

For a moment, I was in a state of shock, before I realized I had lost my scroll due to Ozpin's little surprise. I flipped over to face his general direction, and shouted. "CURSE YOU OZPIN!" Before I quickly began to enact the plan I had on this.

As soon as my vertical momentum came to a stop, and I began to fall, I activated my glide, suddenly stopping me from falling at all, and deactivated it, causing me to begin falling again. The process went on for at least 3 more times, before I let myself fall down, and sure enough, a abandoned temple was in sight... and I happened to have flown right over it, right into a large, empty clearing.

I hit the ground hard, my armor cushioning my fall as I rolled across the field, eventually hitting a tree. My limbs ached from the rough landing, my light working hard to lessen the pain. Shakily, I stood up, and began my trek to the temple, working through the pain. It was nothing compared to what I've experienced on the field, and I wouldn't be a veteran guardian if I hadn't work through the pain for no reason. Pain is part of my duty, both the taking, and giving of it.

It didn't take long to reach the temple. Which, fortunately, had something of interest in it, beyond the cameras that I had quickly figured out. Various chess pieces laid across pedestals, clearly having some hidden meaning to them that Ozpin knew of. He and I were very similar if the legend was anything to go by, if not for the fact he lived longer than I. However, I knew he had nowhere near the combat experience I had.

I grabbed the King chess piece. It did not matter too much to me, after all. Ozpin can play his deeper meanings on me, but that won't stop me from my overall goal in Remnant.

Almost immediately after I picked up the chess piece, I jumped up into the trees, and jumped from there and fro, searching for teammates of value. I quickly found a few students, but they were clearly buffoons, so I ignored them outright.

Not long after, I heard a voice asking if anyone was out there. I almost made move to go to the speaker, but stopped, remembering Ozpin's rule towards acquiring teammates in the initiation. So I stopped, and listened to the speaker a bit, and quickly realizing who it was.

The blond girl who's name I didn't care enough to bother remembering.

 _That's a little too close to Ruby Rose... best to stay away from anyone she's made friends with. I will not be making that classic mistake. Not in a situation like this._ I thought as I moved away from her, as to maintain my distance. _That, and from what I've read, family always have the best chances of finding each other. And the last thing I need to be in is a team with her in it._

I continued my trek through the forest, still remaining in the trees. Most of the students were uninteresting from there on out, but that meant they weren't exactly bad either, considering the data results I've done with grimm show that almost all the time grimm shall have a hostile reaction to negative emotion. The fact that most of them went through the forest without too much caution meant they were decent enough to become huntsman on their own, but that wasn't what I would aim for.

No; my goal is to find those who would struggle in this school. Meaning those who wouldn't make it without help.

It would be a pleasure to have a spar with a huntsman or huntress that could match me, of course, but that wouldn't mean much to me. It wouldn't be the same thrill as just being able to kill them, nor would the fact of doing it over and over. It wasn't part of a guardian to hold back. One might say they should know, but that's a saying from the today guardians of the Tower. Weak and undisciplined, unlike the old aged guardians who fought far longer. Before the walls have been made, where guardians weren't called that, instead being risen or one of the legendary Iron Lords, a feat few could've done back then, as those were risen that protected the city in it's infant times. Though it seemed as if something happened to their ranks, as Lord Saladin was the only one left.

He has since become soft, too.

My internal monologue was cut off, as the leaves concealing me flew away. Instinctively, I pulled out my shotgun, ready to attack the foe in front of me. A moment passed till I realized that the leaves were moving like a whirlwind, and I looked down, quickly spotting the potential cause for it.

Augustus, the boy that caught me in the middle of my tirade, was attacking the grimm with a xiphos sword and scutum shield under the cover of the moving storm of leaves. The grimm were unable to keep an eye on him, and soon enough, they fell, and the leaves fell to the ground, immobile.

 _Interesting..._ I thought to myself. _A weak, but potentially versatile semblance. If all those leaves were to be frozen, or lit on fire... that would make him a particularly useful support teammate. He's the first, undeniably so._ With that thought in mind, I jumped down, catching his attention.

He got ready to fight for a moment, before realizing it was me. "You could've helped."

"I do not choose somebody who cannot stand on their own feet." I said, before pointing up. "And the trees make excellent cover to avoid the cameras from seeing your every action. Including a student making eye contact with others."

He paused for a moment, taking that in. "...That's a really smart idea. And how did you know about the cameras?"

"Hm?" I raised a brow.

"You seemed to have just tuned out Ozpin beyond the initiation speech he did. I saw you a little ways away from me."

"I merely spotted one here when I landed, and quickly adapted to a easy to see obstacle."

* * *

Ozpin sipped his coffee, as he watched the exchange between the two, smiling to himself. "Just because Remnant is a little underdeveloped compared to yours, doesn't mean I can't trick you into it either Barloc." Ozpin took out his own scroll. "How's the ghosting going Qrow?"

"You mean stalking or spying?"

"You know why this is important."

"Ah, don't get ya panties in a wad Oz!"

"Panties?!" Glynda said, offended by the remark.

"I get it, big important guy here that's gonna upgrade all our weapons to the point where the grimm have no chance." He said, waving his hand off to the side as if it was no big deal. "I'm already having a couple students being lured directly to his position. He's not going to cherry pick anyone under my watch. Especially since the advice I've given to Ruby about the Emerald Forest, puts her directly in the path of Weiss. And he's not willing to go near Ruby until he feels as if he understands her eyes."

"You lied to her to complete the mission?" Ozpin said with a brow raised.

"More like protected her." Qrow said in defense. "He has a history of experimenting on people with eye semblances, a nice portion of them still needing mental help. I wouldn't want her on his team with that in mind."

"Fair point I suppose." Ozpin said, taking another sip of his coffee. "So who's the other students to get stuck with him?"

"Sterling Eeli and Kane Cyan Archer."

"That dust scarred student?"

"Sir, you're not just going to ig-"

"Yeah, the twitchy guy. Maybe Barloc could fix his problem."


	6. Flash Thunder

***AN***

So you may be wondering what caused this to take so long? Well, its three things.

1\. My last cat that stayed with me during my childhood died recently, and I needed to take time to get back to myself again.

2\. Computer kept losing internet when I got finished, forcing me to rewrite this over and over(This even got to 8K words one time, but I forgot to hit save even though I told myself to save every 1K words in.

3\. I couldn't find name of Sterling's melee part of her weapon for the life of me(which took up a nice portion of my time and left me feeling extremely frustrated).

4\. My grandma moved in with a bunch of stuff. Then moved out without taking it back.

Overall, it was a clusterfuck last few months along with finals from college. And the crossover I had tied this to is experiencing some issues for it's writers, so that bit with Barloc and those four characters may just be a one-time thing. So yeah... things are very shaky here.

But in the aftermath of it all, I have gotten around to add new things about the story. Of course, a story ain't a story if I just drop it all on you(Don't point out the Barloc bit in the beginning, thats how I did his character there). So I'm just going to say that there are some new character introductions coming soon, and leave it at that.

Nothing to say here(or at least, I don't know how to respond to Cactoos there.). But I will note that this chapter is short, mainly for the reason that I'm waiting on the people I've crossed over with before I make the fight scene. They've hit a roadbump(Chp3 and they hadn't gotten past the 5th page on the doc), and the guy that started it kinda dislikes the first chapter a bit. You can kinda already guess the ending of their chpt 3 if you remember the mech bit, but otherwise that's all I'll say about it.

* * *

"So this world he's made in the book, super detailed right? Just no corner left untouched." Sterling said as she spun around her dual-edged Bardiche, killing grimm that were just about to pounce on her in a group. "A TON of characterization and arcs. So many little details and ideas, that its like he was there the whole time! Its literally the size of an autobiography, and he isn't even finished!"

Kane grunted in response, not saying anything as he launched a round-house kick towards an ursa, his semblance activating, and causing him to jump into the air to avoid the counterattack from the ursa. While he certainly could talk, he wasn't much for it... especially during a job. He did a 180 with his bow, and shot an arrow at a beowulf, before throwing his weapon, which was a bow with sharp edges, down unto the beowulf's head, doing a backflip and turning around to kill another.

"I mean, I don't mind lots of reading, but jeeze, whole years and this much content? Does the guy even sleep as he does these?" She said as she stabbed at a beowulf in the chest, a grenade getting shot out the back of her polearm, and slipping through Kane's legs to destroy a trio of beowolves that were about to pounce on him, before taking the blade out to spin it stylishly as if taunting the pack. She then sliced a beowulf across it's torso cleanly. "And his sister... boy do I not want to mess with her. She seemed annoyed with that silver girl. She ever crack a cold one, or she is one?"

Kane looked around, before realizing something. "Wait, they're already gone?"

Sterling smirked. "And you have mwah to thank for it. I'm quite the fighter I know." She stayed silent for a moment before adding. "Or it may be cause of the other huntsmen to be honest. Heard some shooting back there."

"Right..." Kane said, not letting his annoyance slip through. He'll be fine with this. Just something to get used to in his field of work. "Well, lets get a move on. We need the relics before the team."

He'd only hope that his time at Beacon won't be a chaotic mess he'll have to stay on top of.

"Lets head to the mountain." Sterling said, tugging on his arm. "I don't quite remember where the temple was at while we were falling."

* * *

Ozpin took a sip of his coffee, as he watched Barloc. He had to admit, this being from another dimension was clever, using his regenerative essence to effectively create a powerful corporation, and keep the essence a secret, as well as his past.

Ozpin couldn't guess this man's past outright, that was for certain. But he seen enough to see a lot of himself in the newcomer.

 _There's no doubt about it._ Ozpin thought to himself. _He has the look of somebody that's died and lived dozens, if not hundreds of lives. Yet he keeps going into the fray, even though by all means he should just take a seat and just let his foreign technology do the dirty work._

He narrowed his eyes, and takes a look back at previous footage of Barloc's encounters with the White Fang. Despite having the ability to strike back, he merely dodges, and pleads for the offenders to talk it out. While it had it's effect in most of them, he was still left badly injured in the end, some of which were long and drawn out. He had to look away from those.

He guessed that Barloc's technology prevented him from permanently losing limbs. _But why? Why does he force himself to try so hard? Is there possibly a threat greater than the grimm? Or is it in his very nature to do his best? I'm doing mine in Remnant's best interest, but he... he looks as if he'll strike down Salem without a second thought if he could. What drives this man, so disconnected from society, to defend it as if it was worth more than anything in the world?_ Ozpin stares at Barloc in the initiation footage. The man's face was dead of emotion, only focused on wiping out the grimm, barely dodging the attacks being thrown at him with little to no movement, and striking hard and quick. It was as if he was in a trance. _And when society fights him, he doesn't even change his course... considerate of others, yet not, if the effects of his ignorance is any indicator._

He sighed. _Ironically what I need to win this war against Salem, what I needed from my students. I'm sure that I can talk him out of killing her, but he will have people inevitably trying to save him. When that day comes, where he somehow is forced to lose his ability to come back from anything, how will he deal with it? My students, even everyone around him... they will tug on his soul as he pushes himself past his limits. At which point, what will happen? Will darkness still fall upon this broken planet? Will he shine brighter than ever before? Or will it all fade away, darkness and light, leaving only humanity alone in this world?_

"Sir?" Glynda said in concern, snapping Ozpin out of his train of thought.

He switched to another camera without answering. _Right, its probably better not to question. It still benefits humanity in the end, and its not as if there's something worse than grimm following him out there. He clearly doesn't belong here, though. The Brothers wouldn't send anything of the sort to go spy on us._ He considered switching back to Barloc, but instead chose to focus on Sterling and Kane. _He's got me thinking more than anything else though. I'll need to keep a close eye on him. This piece could go either way..._

* * *

"So lemme get this straight:Instead of going around, and gauging how effective the weapons of others are before-hand, you'd rather look for your teammates?" Augustus said with arms crossed. He made to comment further, but I interrupted him.

"Having powerful weapons is one thing. Knowing how to use them is another thing entirely." I said without breaking focus. "Experience is always more useful over raw, inexperienced strength."

"Fair point I suppose, though you never know if somebody is just messing around." Augustus countered.

 _Hm. Smart boy._ "I suppose you'd wanna ask why I chose you?" I said after a moment of silence.

"...Well, there's that silver-eyed girl you could've gone for. And Yang. They both seemed like very well-trained huntresses already." He shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know why you went for me. I'm not very powerful beyond the-"

"You are a support class of character that emphasizes cooperation, that also improves stealth capabilities with surrounding foliage. A semblance that abuses the environment can combo incredibly well with solar... fire dust, as well as allowing a great amount of horde control, and group camouflage." I interrupted. "Your weaponry, while simplistic to everything else in this world, is still very powerful in it's own right, and with mastery can be all you need in any fight, provided you have the physical capabilities." I looked back to him, inadvertently showing a black, jagged pillar that didn't even refract the light of the torch. "Is there any more questions, or is your curiosity sated? Our goal is to wipe out the grimm inhabitant within."

Augustus stared behind me a second, before looking up. His face paled. "Yes actually." He said worriedly as he pointed above and behind me. "How are we going to kill those things up there?"

I looked to where he's pointing. "Oh sweet Traveler not this variant again."

* * *

Sterling's eyes looked down at the ground in confusion. "Strange... I don't remember this much flora around Mt Ray."

Kane furrowed an eyebrow. "You been here before?"

"I travel a lot in search of ruins to explore. A big adventurer a few years ago, before I decided to make a name for myself as a huntress." She said, as she gazed upon the flowers and grass. "Often times, I'd come here to watch the initiations, both as a kid and as an explorer. I've been here long enough to know that there's almost never any plants around here." She grinned excitedly, and turned to face Kane. "Lets keep moving. Something tells me the answers to this are just up ahead." She then ran ahead, climbing the mountain with haste.

Kane, having had to chase thieves a lot back in Vale, caught up with her, matching her speed. He looked into her eyes, which appeared to be scanning the ground intensely, as if looking for something while she ran. After a few brief moments of running, she stopped, Kane following suit. He followed her gaze to find a light blue orb sitting down before them, seemingly bursting with energy. Before they could gaze upon it much, the orb went into the ground, a batch of marigold taking it's place.

Sterling let out a ecstatic squee. "This is amazing! Lets see if we can catch some before they go into the ground!" She then sprinted off, following the trail of flora.

To her, it was a big discovery that'd shatter everything Remnant knew.

To Kane, usually something this big, has something equally bad following it.

They managed to grab a few orbs, though the orbs phased through their hands and into the ground. While it was upsetting to Sterling they couldn't catch some, the feel of the orbs were definitely otherworldly. The orbs they touched had an indescribable sense of harmony to them. Each time they picked one up, although nothing really happened to them, they couldn't help but feel stronger. That they could do anything they want, as long as they held the orb.

They made it up near a cave of the mountain, the both of them stopping to catch their breath. They looked off to the forest, spotting an abandoned temple. Kane smiled. "Well, we see it. We gonna head down, or you wanna go in?"

"As tempting as it is..." Sterling looked at the cave. "No; I suppose this does have to hold off. But the random appearance of flora should definitely get the attention of the Headmaster of Beacon."

Suddenly, a chorus of screeching emanated from the cave, followed by the sounds of a blade being unsheathed, and fiery steel singing the air as the wielder attacked, seemingly hitting its mark with a resounding thud. The two had already turned on their heels, weapons readied as they slowly moved in. A fiery blur of red shot out of the cave, holding a boy who was screaming out of panic, before suddenly stopping in mid air somehow, and flying down to the ground like an anvil. The two only had a brief moment to take it all in, before a two story tall grimm spider rushed out of the cave with a swarm of grimm bats, causing the two to slide down the mountain in a haste to avoid getting hit.

As they neared the ground, Sterling thrusted her weapon into the cliffside, stopping her momentum just in time to be a few feet or so from the ground. She took hold of her weapon, and fired a grenade, freeing her weapon from the cliff and landing gracefully in front of Barloc. Kane was fortunate with his semblance activating, and as if it was second nature, he leapt off and rolled to Barloc's side, standing up so suddenly it surprised the two, mainly Augustus, who was recovering from the sudden movement.

The spider vibrated it's abdomen, creating a terrifying noise that sent chills down the group's spines. Barloc was unfazed, however, and pulled out a rocket launcher, shooting it in the face immediately, stunning the monster, and killing a few bats as they were flying out. The rocket launcher quickly morphed into a cube, before he pulled out his sword, and rushed at the Grimm horde with lightning fast speeds.

"We cannot fight this foe here!" Barloc called out, as he flew in the air, slicing at the bats. "Make distance! I can handle them!"

The three didn't know how he was doing it, and they didn't care at the time. They ran towards a cliffside they saw past the temple. Unbeknownst to them, a massive fight was taking place at the time. Of which they'll add fuel to the fire to.


	7. Monster Mashers

Cactoos:No, your character wasn't vague. Sure, there was no backstory, but I got the idea that she was a wanna-be adventurer from the bio, who also didn't play by the rules. I put the polearm grenade launcher in there because it sounded cool, and didn't make her underwhelming compared to the other characters. While throwable knives fit the criteria, it was vastly underpowered compared to the rest of the team, basically making her a standby character.

Though as I read it again now(I put this AN in a month back), I think you may have thought I was frustrated with her character. No, its just the weapon. I know I saw a double edged polearm with blades similar in design to Halo's brute shots, but have still been unable to find it.

There's a little more to the weapon for certain, and there is a semblance, but you'll have to read to find out.

Waffle:As tempting as it was, the experience Ozpin has is far too much for Barloc to just slip by, and he wouldn't have sent Qrow to look for him and Weiss if he didn't have his suspicions. I mean, think about it, a pair of kids manage to escape from one of the most secure kingdoms. Sure, a robot army covered them, but the fact they're still alive, especially since Qrow found Barloc in a mech, basically showing that Barloc was clearly not ordinary.

TLDR:Ozpin has everything to use against Barloc, and Weiss is too familiar, but the others he can still troll.

And finally, for all of you that are still here. I've gotten something big. Very big. I don't wanna elude to it, but... you know about that story? With David and Goliath?

Well my name is David, and my father is Leeroy Jenkins.

Nonetheless, you may find that this story is now going to be placed on hiatus/put up for adoption, as what I have now to do is, statistically speaking, far more than this.

* * *

When the group ran to the cliffside, they had hoped that it was the cliffside where the initiation started.

How very wrong they were.

The scene before them was chaos. High ranking Grimm, such as the nevermore and deathstalker, along with what seemed to looked like a massive mix between a beringel and a apathy, only the upper half of it visible as the rest of it stood in the mist below. Team JNPR was trying to use the open field to it's advantage against a deathstalker, whilst also trying, and not doing well, to also handle the massive grimm between the tower and the land. A Nevermore also seemed to be fighting something behind them.

Kane almost paused for a moment. "This actually may work out in our favor..." He said to himself as he ran.

The flaming aura around Barloc had long since dissipated alongside the sword, and he leapt to the ground off of a grimm bat, the horde now thoroughly thinned out as he whipped out his sparrow, charging up the hill at high speeds. He saw team RWBY within the mix, and as he neared the deathstalker, he leapt, running up it and leaping off as the sparrow exploded on the deathstalker, it letting out a surprised squeal from the unexpected attack, using his glide to make distance to the faraway tower before him, throwing up a cube mid-air that converted into MIDA-Multi Tool, landing safely on the tower.

Ruby turned to look at him, surprised for a brief moment. She was about to say something, but Barloc shoved her aside, her narrowly avoiding the claws of the Nevermore, who tried to grab her as it flew over.

"Eyes on the enemy kinderguardian!" Barloc said in annoyance, before aiding her team in their assault towards the Nevermore.

The grimm spider stopped at this, realizing that a stronger grimm was under attack from the enemy team. Looking to the massive grimm monster before it, a silent exchange was given between the darkspawns, as it shot out dark, acidic webs that connected to the destroyed bridges, and started to try and restrict the movement of Barloc and team RWBY.

Barloc realized this, however, and opened up a compartment into his weapon, imbuing it with Fire Dust, as the weapon also doubled as a flare gun.

Except now it was also a bullet flare gun, as he shot at the webs, keeping the spider from gaining ground, as he switched his focus between the nevermore and the spider.

Meanwhile, the beringel mix kept it's focus on Barloc's newfound team, using the surrounding greenery as projectiles, whilst Augustus obscured the beast's vision with a storm of leaves cloaking him and his allies, obscuring the Beringel's vision as well. Kane fired at the weakpoints of the beast as he moved about, opting to try and keep the beast's focus, dodging and weaving around the titanic grimm claws and rubble.

Sterling, however, was doing something different.

Having backtracked through all of it stealthily, and making sure she was still obscured by the leaves, she began twirling her pole arm, progressively getting faster and faster, until finally, she held it aloft with her index finger, and began getting pulled off the ground, a light-blue hue covering her weapon.

"Hope you know how to deal with Specter's Scythe big guy..." She muttered out with a grin. "Because its coming right for ya!"

She went around, flying out of sight of the beast, as it kept it's focus on Kane and Augustus, her weapon spinning like the blades of a helicopter as she did so.

Augustus, through all the chaos, managed to spot Sterling from afar. "Kane, on our right!" He said, allowing on opening for Kane to see Sterling.

He grit his teeth at the sight, and pulled back an arrow on his bow. "Gotta make this count, or that thing will hear and attack her before she could react." He said to himself, aiming straight at the eye of the beast, and held hope that his semblance would activate.

He wasn't the only one, however, as Barloc turned around quickly to notice the white spek off in the distance. "These dim-witted, arrogant and useless hunters! HUNTRESSES, GET READY TO DODGE!" He yelled out in anger, and quickly threw a solar grenade at a vital point of the giant, climbing up the still remaining architecture to get up high, as well as drawing it's attention.

The giant grimm cried out in both surprise and pain, whipping it's arms around to slap away the architecture. Barloc only just managed to get on the beast's shoulder before it all flew away, team RWBY having skillfully dodged both the slap and the debris.

Barloc then ran up to the beast, and released a powerful solar blast in it's face, causing it to stumble to the side, allowing team RWBY to see JNPR fighting the deathstalker. He then whipped out his shotgun, and laid a hail of shotgun blast into it's neck, jumping off to reload as soon as he ran out of ammo. As he did this, Kane had moved up closer and fired his shot, landing an arrow straight in the beast's eye.

The beast released a bellowing roar that caused everyone to stop what they were doing for a second, with the exception of Sterling, who's momentum caused her to fly to the beast's neck, giving it a fatal gash in the nape of it's neck with her weapon. She rolled on the ground into some bushes, as the beast slowly fell into the misty abyss.

Sterling stood up, a smile on her face. "Man, I come up with the best plans at times like this."

Barloc didn't even need to hear that to get a migraine, as he went back to focus on the grimm spider, only to find it missing. He looked back to Weiss's group, only to find the blond one missing. The sound of shotgun blasts from above then finally caught his attention, and he looked up to see that the blond one was firing shotgun blasts into the Nevermore's mouth. He stared on, dumbfounded, as the blond leapt off, landing safely back to where he and the team were, the nevermore crashing into the cliffside.

Weiss didn't waste a second, jumping up and stabbing the nevermore's tail, pinning it to the temple below. Barloc snapped out of his stupor, and attempted to figure out a plan to fight off the Nevermore.

Kane, meanwhile, went to help JNPR, firing an arrow straight at the stinger of the deathstalker that had now forced JNPR to be at the edge of a broken bridge, making it cry out in pain. JNPR took their opportunity to rush the monster.

Pyrrha threw her spear into one of the deathstalker's eyes, while Ren jumped on top to continue the damage on the stinger, firing his submachine guns into it.

"Pyrrha, shield! Nora, hammer!" Jaune called out to his teammates, the two immediately understanding what to do.

As the stinger fell onto the the head of the deathstalker, Pyrrha held her shield up, and Nora bounced off of it, going high into the air and slamming her hammer down on the stinger to finish it off. The bridge then crumbled, and the team quickly got off the bridge to avoid falling.

Barloc, meanwhile, was left dumbfounded at what to do, having no clue as to everyone's arsenal. He was then in disbelief, as Ruby had figured out the plan before him.

They were going to use the ribbon, of which he didn't even know was inside the sword, to create a slingshot. Yang stood on a pillar, holding the other half of the ribbon as Blake stood on a opposing one.

Ruby smiled at him connivingly. "Not a bright one are you?"

He responded with a glare, and summoned a table to flip out of anger. "Damn this world and it's hard to tell weapons!"

Ruby laughed, as Weiss came back to help power up the shot. She then hanged her Crescent Rose on the ribbon, looking to Weiss as she did so. "Can you make the shot?"

Weiss was about to respond, but stopped upon realizing Ruby was actually dead serious. "Yes I can make the shot, I'm not trying to be a huntress for fun!"

"OK! Jeeze, just making sure." She said, as she readied a mag into her weapon, before launching, pinning the nevermore's head into the wall as the ice broke, the nevermore now stuck in the scythe's blade. Weiss then summoned a series of glyphs for Ruby to run on, allowing her to run up the wall. She then ran, firing Crescent Rose to boost her speed with it's knockback, the nevermore giving out a last, rising cry.

It was then that the spider appeared, running out of the mist below and to Ruby with terrifying speed. Barloc reacted almost instantaneously to this, and grabbed the ribbon, dashing with his sword a bit, before he let the ribbon, of which he quickly angled himself to aim at the spider with, throw him to the spider, stabbing into the spider's back and pinning it before it could leap.

As Ruby reached the top and cut the head cleanly off the bird, the spider, now upset with losing it's prey, pried Barloc from it's back, taking him as it's meal instead. To it's surprise, Barloc dove into it's mouth. The last thing the grimm felt was a fiery explosion inside of it, below blew up into pieces, solar light coming out of the now deceased grimm.

The fiery explosion rang out through the ensuing silence, as everyone watched as the remnants of the grimm spider and nevermore fall into the abyss below. Save for Weiss, who jumped to the temple where the nevermore fell next to. Sure enough, bright, orange light shimmered from behind a pillar within, just like the last time she saw him come back to life. Narrowing her eyes, she stomped towards it without second thought, arriving just in time for Barloc to finish his armor set, having gotten on the armor set imbued with hadronic energy. He was about to put on the helmet, until he got slapped in the face.

Hard.

"YOU IDIOT!" She yelled in his face, with tears in her eyes. "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?! JUST GOING OUT LIKE THAT?!"

Barloc, however, was hardly fazed by it, being more surprised if anything. "Weiss, I'm fairly certain there should be nothing wrong with this. Yes, I may have died this time, but resurrection has proven that this should not hold me back, provided I'm not overly reckless." He put on the helmet, walking past Weiss and out into the open, where the others could see him. "Even though the spider would've missed, the silver-eyed girl's life is imperative to protect. It is Remnant's greatest anomaly! An anomaly that shall be my honor to unravel!"

Ruby Rose pointed at the explosion, then back to Barloc, and kept doing going back and forth, all while stopping herself from saying something, until she stops and yells out. "WWWHHAAAAT?!"

"I got no clue either Sis..." Yang stared in disbelief.

Blake was speechless herself. She was fully aware of what just happened. At the same time, it made sense, remembering the attacks the White Fang made towards him. It also didn't make sense, as it simply wasn't possible.

"HE'S A SPACE ZOMBIE!" Nora shouted out in realization, attempting to rush down Barloc, but got stopped by her team.

Barloc's team, meanwhile, was just confused. "Just a moment ago he was there..." Kane said with a furrowed brow, pointing at where the explosion was. "How'd he get there?" He then pointed towards Barloc.

"I dunno..." Sterling said, holding her hand on her head. "This is a real headache. Can we just head back to Beacon?"

At the end of it all, everyone chose to just get back to Beacon with their pieces, with one thing certain in their minds. That this was a mess, and they should forget about... whatever happened back there.

* * *

"Entry Number 260. The disastrous initiation has been over with, as well as the to be expected boring ceremony, and now I find myself babysitting a bunch of mortals." I said, as he looked to a camera he had secretly installed in his dorm. "As I cannot stay there all day, I've taken to installing a camera inside of the dorm in order to keep an eye out for my teammates, complete with a teleporter place in a convenient, yet secretive location within the dorm."

I spun around on my chair, moving to the otherside of the ship. "You may ask yourself, why do I choose not to continue my business inside of the dorm, and let my allies know of my light?" I said, as I typed out responses to members of the company, my fingers moving so fast that no doubt one would consider me inhuman. "As tempting as the idea is, the SDC has eyes and ears everywhere. All it takes is one slip up, and Jacques could have all of Remnant bearing down on me, preventing him from being taken down, as whoever captures me would be taken out afterwards, whilst I get handed to the SDC. Something that will never happen, I assure you."

"In the meantime," I whirled my chair over to the other side. "I went to check on my company. Thankfully, the person I left in charge isn't as dumb as a rock after all. Projects are continuing at their usual pace, overall improvements to stocks and merchandise remains unchanged in the rate of growth, leaving everything exactly as they were." I said, as I quickly opened up a map of Remnant, and laid it flat on a table.

"I haven't told them about Ozpin; and humanity's ancient threat. There's not enough information to properly utilize here, and even then, hurting him would always end up hurting me more. Data points show that I'll only have him underneath me in a few decades or so, provided I do my best to ensure he doesn't feed off of my own power." I then narrowed my eyes, staring at the black dragon-like continent on the map. "Though my instincts tell me that I'll inevitably need to. Especially if I want to learn the truth."

I sighed in frustration. "Its only a matter of time, however, before the Hive come; and it seems I've got more to worry about than just the Hive. For Remnant seems to harbor a threat that'll wipe out humanity as well. If my hypothesis is correct, each of the kingdoms hold powerful relics, as their symbols, particularly Vale's and Mistral's, are symbolic of said items, particularly to the maidens. The lamp is representative of leadership. Of power, of a guiding light, and omnipotence." I said, as I outlined Mistral in a red circle.

"Meaning that a relic is most likely hidden there. A simple, yet cunning way to hide in plain sight, provided that nobody knew of the plan and were careless. Such security and distance from the items can only mean one thing, however..." I paused, before continuing. "I'll talk about this in another log I'm calling 'The Grim Theory', pun wholly unintended. It goes in depth to the ancient and local folklore of Remnant, as well as the correlations between the two."

"I cannot go for it now, however." I said, as I got up, going to perform weapon maintenance. "Ozpin knows of my secrets as well. And he wouldn't so willingly expose without a good reason." I said, as I turned off the audio log, before mumbling to myself. "At least, I'd hope so..."

I then went over to another table, this time to focus on something else. My sword.

"Now it's time to upgrade Ilias Mk I into Ilias Mk II. That last battle makes it necessary to focus on upgrading now..."

* * *

*EPILOGUE*

Dr Merlot went through the initiation log over and over, as if wanting to make sure it was certain that it was the case. He stood up from his seat. "This monster of monsters..." He said, gritting his teeth in frustration. "He'll just slaughter these grimm, my yet to be children, without a second thought? I oughta send my best after him and swarm him now..." Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself; and searched up the man's identity.

"Barloc, CEO of the Adastra Industries..." He looked into the company, and narrowed his eyes. Footage showed dozens, if not hundreds of mechs wandering around various part of the facility, along with advertisement of medication and weaponry of which he's never seen before. "This boy has the audacity to just go ahead and join the campaign to wipe out such potential, AND leave himself out in the open? I'd kill him now, if it wasn't for the fact he's backed up with such strength, and allies to cover himself with..."

"Why wait it out?" An unfamiliar voice said to Merlot. He spun around on his chair to see the intruder; and saw Jacques Schnee, who smiled at him. "Now while I don't like what you're doing, I do believe the enemy of my biggest enemy is my friend..."


	8. News

I'm posting this as a news chapter just in case some of you didn't know(I don't normally do this, but this is an exception). Me, Aquilos, Dustinz, and Animeak are now working on the continuation to Remnant of an Iron Rose.

Some of you will no doubt wonder about Barloc in it. Yes, it is the same Barloc, no, it will not be a direct tie-in to this story. I won't tie my stories to another author, especially if it's one that has stats bigger than my own story.

As for why Barloc is there? Well, I thought he'd go great with being Cayde's secretary. That, and he's somebody I wanted to bring along to introduce some ideas into the fold. Ideas that are currently a hot topic of debate between me and the others(read the new chapter in Iron Rose to find out).

I plan to continue this story as well, don't get it wrong. Iron Rose ain't taking up too much time, and I still intend to keep going.

That all said, I'll have another chapter ready for this in a few days. We're doing a timeskip into V2 next chapter.

I'll see you all next time. Thanks for tuning in.


	9. Cafeteria Mayhem

**Sorry that I've been holding this out on you guys so long. School became a big pain in the butt, and of course, I've been focusing more on Iron Rose.**

 **I'm considering cutting down on the classes if possible to see if I could focus on this more(I've already dropped D2 just so I could continue this stuff, been binging on Byf.).**

 **Life stuff aside, lets start on the reviews:**

OPP & Marcella:Barloc being Cayde's secretary sounds quite interesting.

 **I found it a very dynamic duo indeed. A overly serious warlock with a joke name to him with Cayde just sounded perfect for Iron Rose.**

 **Remember, however, that he's still from SOFI, but not directly tied in to Ptabs's Remnant-verse. Which... well, I won't say.**

BlackWing:Dr Merlot gonna die. That's a fact.

 **Well yes, but it actually won't go out the way you think. Despite Barloc's cynical attitude, he's still a guardian, and still feels obligated to spare humans, as well as faunas by recent extension, unless he absolutely has to kill them.**

 **Does that mean Barloc isn't going to kill off the grimm and Merlot? Or use them for something else, and still kill them? I'll leave you on the thought.**

 **With that said, and without further ado,**

* * *

"So Barloc, you've been pretty inactive towards us the last semester." Kane started off, staring at me from his seat. "And also haven't ever been showing up to the cafeteria or dorm. Do you have a place of your own, or have been living in the wilds?"

My and I team were currently in the cafeteria, after finally having gotten hold of me to come over for a minor reason.

I sat opposite of Kane and Augustus, ignoring my food as Sterling calmly ate her toast and eggs. "Both. I live in my airship."

"A... airship?" Kane said slowly with a raised brow, Sterling and Augustus doing the same. "You have one of those?"

"I use it as housing, yes." I responded pragmatically. "The need to stay indoors rather than fighting grimm is unimportant to me. I'm only here at your request, as I have duties to maintain as team leader." He crossed his arms. "Is there an actual need? Like grimm threats around the school? Struggling in the classes?"

Sterling shook her head, and swallowed the food in her mouth before speaking. "Well, we kinda just figured a team leader would be more... active around his team. To build teamwork and such."

I shook my head in kind. "Then you should see me in action. If I wanted, I could raze whole armies of grimm, but the battle that I need to stop is more within humanity and faunas alike." I showed this by idly summoning a solar grenade, throwing up and back down into his palm in a relaxed gesture, repeating the process as the grenade hasn't been armed, until the grenade disappeared. "Grimm are just the more accessible way of assisting at the moment. My company is fortunately able to hold up the mission I left them."

"Comp-" Was all Augustus was able to let out, before the sound of something heavy being slammed down on a table next to them followed by silverware clattering made itself known. The whole team looked to the noise.

I stiffened at the sight of Ruby Rose. Even though she was going on about some sort of list for 'the best day ever' and kicking the semester off with a bang, I didn't have a backup plan setup for this scenario. I kept my attention on her, but made no move as I opted to quickly make up a plan to stay out of sight.

"I always kick my semester off with a Yang!"

Then I promptly slammed my head into the table, groaning as Sterling chuckled at the bad pun. "Oh by the Traveler, she has one of those on her team..."

"What's wrong with a bad pun every once in a while?" Sterling asked, before grinning. "There's no need to turn white as the moon to somebody like that."

"I know what you said, and my respect for you is now completely gone."

"Worth it."

"What's with being so tense anyhow?" Augustus said, noticing the apprehension on I's form. "It's like you fear them or something."

"Not them, especially with my own sister in the mix. Her." I pointed to Ruby, making sure none of her team was able to see. "She's an anomaly with those silver eyes. I don't like anomalies. They scare me more than anything else ever could."

The four were surprised at the fact. "You know, she's been trying to reach you ever since she got her hands on that book of yours." Kane pointed out.

"For what reasons may I ask?" I said, a tint of edge to my tone. _She can't be that curious or distrusting of me... could she? If not, this could complicate things._

They looked to each other for a moment, before Sterling spoke. "She wanted to know as to why you've been avoiding her of all people. You've been coming over to visit Weiss and Blake occasionally, but act as if talking to her is a big deal."

 _Ah, that explains it then. A mere imbalance of time spent. Nothing that I can't-_

"Also, can you not ditch class by leaving these 'decoys'?" Sterling added. "We're getting tired of having to clean up after you when you're out slaying."

I grit my teeth from under my helmet, flushing in partial embarrassment. "W-well I... his classes are just that boring! And I'd rather be-"

I then saw a pie fly past my face, and I followed it, watching as it flew right into Weiss's face.

Pretending to forget about the conversation, I looked to where the pie came from, and saw one of the members of team JNPR looking surprised, and guilty of the act. It was the redheaded one, who tried to pin the blame on the albino pink eyes, whilst the other ones were left shocked.

Narrowing my eyes, and acting as if I was greatly offended by her throwing a pie at my sister, I looked to my own food, which was a plate of spaghetti, before lobbing it straight at Nora's face, followed by Weiss throwing her mash potatoes at her as well.

I then stood up on his table, derailing everything with a single shout. "THE HOUNDS OF THE FOOD WARS ARE UPON US!"

All of the students stared at me for a few seconds.

Then Nora fired back with a soda can set to explode on me, but completely, and hitting a man with skin between light, to medium brown skin tone, a shaggy head of dark chestnut brown hair, and hazel eyes… hunching over a rather expensive looking slice of now destroyed cake.

The man looked to Nora with eyes of fire.

And the mayhem started in the cafeteria.

Food immediately went flying everywhere as all teams split, with some students running out of the building as fast as possible in order to protect their food, while the rest participated or hid within the chaos. I did the latter as mu teammates fled the scene, slipping deep within a cluster of tables. I carved a small hole out with my sword on each of the tables and watched the chaos unfold. "And so does this unintentional chaos truly unfolds… I'll make my escape later." I muttered, watching as RWBY, JNPR, Sterling, and-

His eyes widened at the sight. "The fox girl with the eye semblance is here?!" He took a moment to process this. "Well, I'd better hope she gets knocked out then… or Ruby. Silver eye data is needed after all."

"THAT WAS A HANDCRAFTED DELICACY YOU RUINED!" The brown skinned young man shouted as he began lobbing soda can after soda can around Nora, the last of which had a soft blue glow which soon caused it and the previous cans to rupture violently.

Nora giggled maniacally, as she aftly dodged the soda cans on top of a mountain of tables. "I'M QUEEN OF THE CASTLE! I'M QUEEN OF THE CASTLE!"

Sterling looked to be enjoying the chaos, using her bow to shoot leeks and milk cartons at the fox girl. Said fox girl was clearly enjoying the mess just as much as Sterling though was also making a show of it, dodging at the last second and even going as far to catch a leek mid-flight and taking a bite out of it.

Sterling looked at her as she took a bite out of the leek, before a determined grin befell her features, eyebrows narrowing. "You cheeky little fox girl…" She said as she slung her bow on her back, now looking to engage in melee with a breadstick, smacking Cardin in the face, tilting her head slightly to avoid the spaghetti he tried to lob in her face.

"JUSTICE SHALL BE SWIFT!" Ruby called out to Nora, crushing a milk carton. "JUSTICE WILL BE PAINFUL!"

"JUSTICE SHALL BE SWEET!" The still angered man bellowed as he began to throw donuts as if they were shuriken, a jelly donut hitting Ren's face as team RWBY released a warcry along with the man.

I stared outwards with a flat face. It was just unbelievably corny to me.

"Very inconspicuous tables by the way boss!" Kane said from above him, causing him to look up. Apparently, Kane was fighting off the other members of Cardin's team. "I'll be sure to come here with a meatloaf afterwards!"

"I'll have you know, I have better things to do than-" I was interrupted, as Kane pulled him out.

"HOUNDS OF WAR WEAKSAUCES!" Kane yelled as he threw me out into the open, leaving him confused, and right into the warpath of a barrage of watermelons.

Quickly utilizing my void light, as he knew this fight was definitely non-lethal, I teleported out of the way at the last second, letting the barrage hit RWBY. He then growled in frustration. "Fine! I'll participate in this blunder." He said in annoyance, picking up a breadstick as I looked to the fox. "Sterling! This one's mine, help Kane!"

Sterling nodded, and jumped away, heading over to Kane. I wielded the breadstick like he would a normal sword, staring down the fox girl.

"So we meet again at last." I said with a tint of excitement trickling in, his helmet concealing his face. "The lizard got me too excited last time, but I'll have better chances doing this in person now with a straight head…"

Right as I finished my speech, the fox makes a full turn to face at him with her cannon lifted up… with a large watermelon sticking out of the barrel. Already charging a blast.

I merely went into a defensive stance, ready to deflect as his light moved to the sword. In the background, Ruby slid across a table full of left behind plates of food "Just like the training, Radegast taught you…" I muttered to myself.

I blanched and froze in place. "The training I'm using for a food fight, where have I gone-"

"Ya going to keep talking like that?" The fox interrupted and stuffing a melon into her cannon again while holding a leak and chewing on said vegetable. "Ah seem to remembe' this being a warzone." She taunts a bit while charging up another attack and firing the melon straight at him.

"No talking during a fight!" Sterling reminded him with a smirk on her face, kneeing Cardin in the chest as she slapped him with a breadstick.

I looked on nonplussed with the pink on my visor slowly coming off on it's own, and teleported behind the fox. Much to my dismay, the man from earlier barely just managed to block the breadstick slam at the last second. Riding the impact down, the man spun down and rolled away, once again righting himself as he stared down I.

"You want Stella, you go through me," He declared as he pointed a chili flake spiced breadstick at I. "Now stand your ground."

"My hero…" The now named Stella mutters with a roll of her eyes, taking another munch of her leek. "Hm, these are pretty good…" She said, as my right eye twitched underneath the helmet.

"TRAVELER DAMN THESE INSUFFERABLE WHITE KNIGHTS!" I shouted out in frustration, utilizing my light to do a powerful dash into the man with my breadstick, sending him back. Somehow, the man not only kept his footing as he slid back, he had kicked up a turkey and headbutt the baked fowl into my face, it bouncing off my head.

"NO! ONE! HARMS! MY! TEAM!" He shouted as he broke off his breadstick over my piece by piece.

Sterling had apparently heard that, and immediately quit focusing on Cardin's team to take a snipe at Stella. "Are you sure about that hunter boy?" She muttered to herself as she took aim.

I did the same to the man in kind as he dodged hits, wanting to get the man out of the way. He notices a soda next to a table near him, and scoops it up, utilizing his glide as he jumps into the air to throw it down at the man, a grape-flavored explosion covering the man. I then utilizes to grab a set of pancakes, throwing them like discs toward Cardin and his team, sending a couple to Stella as well.

She steps to the side of a pancake, sharing an unamused look to me. "Truce?" She says in a deadpanned voice while jerking her head in the man's general direction. All the while, loading in another melon into her cannon while sticking the leek into her mouth like a cigar.

Just as she said that, a leek hit the back of her head. Sterling laughed a bit in victory. "I harmed your team!" She taunted at the man, before quickly loading up an apple aimed directly at Dove Bronzewing's waist.

"Sterling, quit sidetracking!" I yelled at her, before switching my focus back to the two.

Stella, watching this just picks up the new leak and puts it in her mouth. "There's a joke to make here…" She says, adjusting their positions. "Shame I suck at jokes!" And with that, she charged back in. "LEEROY!" And fires the melon away.

"Throw the CHEESE!" the man proclaimed, somehow finding the time to quickly rig several trebuchets armed with cheese wheels, a block of swiss in his own aura covered mystical bear arm. A rain of dairy had soon befallen the battlefield.

I ducked under a table as to avoid the blast. Bending over to balance it on my back to make a protective shell, I went over to a relatively big pile of cans, and threw a few of them at the two from under the cover. Quickly following up my assault, I slid out, gathering the cans in one fell swoop, and mimicking the hunters of old, jumped up into the air to release a soda barrage onto the two, using a magnet on my gauntlets to grab more midair to throw both above and straight at the duo. The result of the assault caused the battlefield to also rain soda.

The man only tilt his head back, mouth agape as he drank in the carbonated beverage. "You call that soda!? This is soda!" Pulling a glass bottle of electric blue liquid, the man began to violently shake the bottle and aimed the nozzle at me and popped the cap.

I grit my teeth, desperately holding the table against the ensuing blast of soda, efforts proving fruitless as I was sent flying into a wall, table still in grasp. I got up as the stream died out, and was about to continue my assault.

The sound of a pillar breaking, however, caught my attention, and I looked to see that Weiss was sent flying into a pillar, Ruby catching her before she fell and got crushed. It did nothing to stop me from pausing for a long period of time in shock, however.

"Weiss! Weiss! Don't leave me Weiss!" Ruby shouted overdramatically in worry.

I knew my sister was stronger than that. Yet, as I watched the pillar fall, a burning desire to enact vengeance ignited from within, and I forgot about the fox girl entirely for a moment. I looked to JNPR, as arc light crackled in my hands.

"This. Ends. Here." I said, as he looked back at the two. Looking back at my own pile, I grabbed several and threw them into the air at the duo, ending the barrage with an arc charged soda hitting the set of sodas I sent forth. The arc charge set off the rest, and created a devastating bolt of soda chain lightning that splashed the whole cafeteria, announcing my presence for a moment as everyone looked at me.

"Hold this?" Stella asks, suddenly at his side with a very polite tone as she hands him a large gourd.

"If you'd mind, I am-" I then looks at the gourd. "Impossible…"

It was of the impossible proportions.

And glowing.

And on fire.

I half expected it to be a legitimate bomb, but it turned out to still explode gourd all over me. I merely responded back by charging another soda can, throwing it at Stella. The soda explodes, shooting out its contents in beams that pulsed. I then charged another, and spun it as I threw it at the man, aiming off to his side. Not even bothering to dodge, a green ethereal bear head appeared over the man's own and clamped down on the now exploding soda can, soaking him in carbonated goodness.

"I love explosions~!" They hear as Stella, covered in soda, yell out in excitement somehow managing to turns Tomatoes into fucking grenades and was tossing them around.

"Sing it sister!" Nora happened to be nearby when Stella cheered.

"Then you'll love this!" the man added, his bear hand snapping as the cheese from before began to rupture like C4.

Kane, Sterling, and CRDL had stopped their fighting to look on in absolute confusion, none of what was going on actually making sense.

"Is he seriously throwing lightning soda?" Kane asked, looking at me in disbelief.

"Forget that, how skilled of a chef do you have to be to make tomato bombs, with the explosion size of a hand grenade?" Sterling asked, unable to see how any of this is supposed to work, as team RBY dealt with NPR.

"This guy really likes his cheese…" Augustus chose to comment from the doorway of the cafeteria, CRDL and his team now noticing him.

The boy had been standing there stacked with pizzas and other such delicacies. He then turned to look at the six, a amused expression. "Were you looking for these perhaps? Sorry, mine now." He said as he surrounded them with a storm of leaves.

"AUGUSTUS, YOU TRAITOR!" Kane yelled after him in betrayal, attempting to find his way out of the storm, CRDL doing the same to attempt to get their pizza stack back.

Blake then sent Nora flying into a set of soda machines, causing a massive pile of soda cans to pour out. Stella was nearby and had grabbed a soda that was still intact and popped it open and set it next to Nora before trying to slide away.

Only to slip and end up falling onto her arse. "Yip!" She squeaks out loudly, having landed cheek first onto a cup.

I didn't waste a moment, and released a massive arc charge into the ground all the soda was at, creating a massive explosion of soda that made waves one would only expect from an ocean. It pushed everyone back to the walls, save for Ruby, who jumped up into the air to avoid the attack.

With almost everyone down, I took a moment to survey the destruction. I couldn't help but feel a slight amount of remorse for the lost food the students of Beacon had lost. _All this food... wasted. So many lives that could've walked away with a full stomach. The stomachs my teammates could've walked away with. Stomachs full of pizza, cake, maybe even pies and meatloaves... I am truly a monster for causing this war. I should've never started this..._

I then perked up, hearing something in the distance. _What's that noise?_

I turned around to see that Ruby took action, using her semblance to fly forth with her speed boost, pulling up a rainbow colored tidal wave of soda in her wake from the end of the cafeteria. I stared on in disbelief.

"Impossible…" I let out. I then recalled everything. "It's all impossible!"

"The goddess of sugar cares little!" Stella cries out, striking a pose while still on the ground. "The impossible means nothing!" She finishes with a loud, bombastic laugh.

"But how?!" Was all I was able to let out, as a even bigger wave crashed upon everyone again, this time forcing the cafeteria doors open as the liquid pooled out, everyone rolling out onto the grass .

"Huh. Well ain't that a hole in a boat…" the man muttered, body idly floating upon the sea of carbonated sugar.

Stella was giggling madly, wiping her eyes as she tries to stand up. When the soda finally even out she gets up, walks on over to Ruby, grabs her wrist and puts it into the air. "Goddess of Sugar wins again!" The cannoneer cries out jokingly.

"I still want my cake!" the man shouted, not even bothering to move as he had landed on a patch of grass.

All I could think of was how impossible it all was... until Ozpin stood over me with a grin.

"Had some fun now did you?" Ozpin teased.

"I was just attending a meeting there when things got out of hand..." I muttered to myself as I stood up, witnessing Glynda using her telekinesis to set everything back into order within the cafeteria.

"You're not a very good liar despite your age and occupation." Ozpin noted.

I crossed my arms, glaring at him from under the helmet. "My main goal is to kill off grimm, and send humanity into a golden age. Not babysit a bunch of kids."

"And you will in time." Ozpin said in response, drinking his coffee. "But for now I think you should learn how to be human again. You'll thank me for it once everything is done."

I bit my tongue, holding down my tone of voice. "I do not think you know why I'm trying so hard. If Remnant is not prepared for the future, it shall fall into darkness before it can save itself. I need to do all I can to push humanity forwards, even if it means harming myself for it."

Ozpin seemed to notice my concealed harshness, yet made no move to show any care for it. "Then maybe you should look at who else you're harming as you do this. Especially those close to you." He said, as he walked away.

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. _Who could I possibly be harming other than me? Nobody should care about my duty, not even Weiss. I made it abundantly clear that I will do my guardian duties as necessary._

"Hey Barloc!" Ruby said, tapping my shoulder as she came up behind me, causing me to jolt. "That was a pretty fun food fight wasn't it?! I didn't even know soda cans could do that!"

"Y-yes, that was a fun food fight Ruby..." I said as I turned around, shifting my posture and voice to look relaxed. "I'd like it if we could do it again, but obviously Glynda wouldn't want to keep cleaning up after us."

My eyes then widened, as I realized the wording unintentionally made me say I wanted to spend more time with her. _Traveler dammit, I was only planning on doing small interactions!_

"Well, why not do something else?" Ruby offered, before getting a bit nervous. "I've heard from Weiss that you're quite the experienced gunsmith. Think you could teach me a thing or two?"

"You'll have to catch me during grimm slaying." I said as I pulled out a list of things to do today, most of which consisted of extermination missions, the list so large it hit the grass. As she looked it over, I crossed out the meeting I had with those three for today.

Ruby stared on in disbelief. "But where's the time for classes?"

I simply went back to going on extermination missions, ignoring Ruby's calls for me to return.

* * *

I pulled the sword out of the last Goliath, having recently decimated a herd through sheer persistence, as well as causing the goliaths to attack each other. I jumped off as it fell to the side, already turning into smoke as I leapt on top of one of the many ruined buildings of Mt Glenn. I looked to the horizon.

The sun was beginning to set, meaning it was time to turn in my daily set of completed mission reports back at Beacon. It was then I remembered Ozpin's words.

 _Then maybe you should look at who else you're harming as you do this. Especially those close to you..._ I furrowed my brow in thought. _By what does that man mean? I had never had anyone close to me in centuries. Not since the Great Disaster, and guardians never have families. We have ghosts and fireteams..._

I stared out at the horizon, as I thought about it for a little longer.

 _Ruby has been looking for me... but why? I know autobiographies tend to catch people's attention. But she didn't seem interested in the book when she finally got the chance to talk to me, rather opting for casual weapon talk._

I sighed to myself in frustration, watching as the light from the sun dimmed. _Whatever. I still have a future to build. A future that I'll give my all to make, just like how the Traveler had. And this humanity shall be enveloped in a golden age, with Weiss and those I deem worthy leading my charge. Even if-_

"Hey Barloc."

I turned around in surprise, pausing for a few moments. It was Ruby. "I see you remembered one of my now recently completed extermination missions."

"Yep!" She said with a smile. "So, what have you been up to? Aside from slaying grimm of course."

"Thinking. Plotting." I started off immediately. "As you have no doubt learned from Weiss last semester, I have a plan to make humans and faunas dominant in Remnant, free of grimm suppression. Which often takes up all my time."

"Yet she hasn't been let on all of it." Ruby pointed out. "She seemed fine with it, but I wanna know why she doesn't."

I nodded. "It is important. Classified. My plan runs on a very thin line of secrecy." I said as I turned around. "One knowing push from the enemies I have, and it will fall into abandonment, with massive consequences to follow."

My jumpship then flew before me. A reiteration of the Arcadia class jumpship I had, except large enough to account for my armory, guest space, and of course, scientific equipment. I jumped onto it, and opened the cockpit. I looked to her.

"I assume you have a bullhead of your own that transported you here?"

She shook her head sheepishly.

I sighed, and moved the ship closer to her. "On. I have mission reports to file."


End file.
